This is spirit: Clash of souls!
by This is the real deal
Summary: Ikki Tenryou is the third strongest medafighter in Japan and Metabee is stronger than ever! But when a stranger apears destroying everyone's medabots, Ikki is thrust into an entirely new adventure, and it's more than just their pride on the line now. The gang is now thrust into a perilous adventure, with new allies, medafighters, medabots, even digidestined! This.. Is... SPIRIT!
1. The greatest Medafighter yet!

**Note before we begin: I do not own Medabots or any of the characters inside. Not even the bad boy himself, the KWG type medabot. While having many powers for it was my idea, even those are not mine. Story plot and stuff is mine though (obviously). Either way, enjoy my story and please rate it, leave a comment, so I may understand whether my skills are worthy to be recognized as a master author! Thank you for reading!**

"Metabee, you're too close to him, get around him and use your rifle!" A small yellow robot dashed around another blue and white robot with claws attached to its right arm. The yellow-bot yelled and dived in true movie fashion while firing with the rifle attached to his arm. Two quick shots embedded themselves in the blue-bot's right shoulder.

_**Critical, right arm Medapart 100% damage. Function ceased.**_

The blue-bot's right arm became darker as the part twitched a final time before dying in a fit of sparks.

"Zorin, use the monkey manoeuvre!" The blue-bot understood and quickly flipped over the yellow-bot. he continued jumping and bounding like some kind of ninja to gain some space and then leaped forward like a monkey from a tree before the enemy could counter with his rifle. "Zorin, switch to ox style!" The blue-bot or 'Zorin,' turned his monkey dive into a rugby tackle to knock Metabee to the ground before he punched him hard in the face repeatedly with his hammer-like left arm.

_**Head medapart 50% damage. Seeker computer fault. Homing offline.**_

"Ikki, arrgh! What… do… I… do?" Metabee gasped in between each Tin jarring blow. Ikki Tenryou stopped to think. He was only ten years old, but already he was considered as the third strongest Medafighter in Japan, and part of the second strongest team in the world. Metabee, the yellow KBT type medabot being beaten up was his partner. On the opposing side was a KWG type medabot, a model similar to Rokusho, Zorin. Like most KWG's it had the same trademark antennae as Rokusho and similar colour and parts. His Medafighter was a solemn kid with dark blue hair that covered his eyes and a blue T-Shirt. Ikki couldn't help wondering who this strange kid was. He had come out of no-where with his Zorin Medabot…

The school bell rang. All the students in the class shifted out lazily as they tried to escape coach mountains gym class. Erika, amazingly, seemed to be fine even after the day of "watering the sports field with your sweat!" She always somehow found the energy she needed if a news scoop was on the line. And then she'd find more to bully Ikki into coming with her.

"Come on Ikki, you're always so slow!" Erika was jogging on the spot waiting for Ikki to arrive from the boys changing room. "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!"

"Aw come on Erika, it's not like you discovered big foot or something else that doesn't exist. What's with the rush?"

"First big foot is **real, **second, if you loved to robattle then you would rush. There's this weird medafighter outside with a piece of junk medabot who's trashing everybody who robattles him! I was planning reporting on Koji in action with his upgraded Sumilidon but since he's not here, you're the next best thing."

"Gee I feel real special now don't I," Ikki said sarcastically as he exited the changing room.

"Nah, you're nothing special, but I rock," Said an all too confident voice that could only belong to Metabee.

"Metabee you're not supposed to be here!" Ikki said as he jumped on the tin can himself to try and hide him. Giving up he grabbed one of Metabee's horns to the distress of the medabot and pulled him away out of the sports field and the line of sight of Coach Mountain.

The trio which was later joined by Brass, Erika's medabot, arrived at the park to see the sturdy Totalizer get flung twenty feet in the air before landing face first onto a bench.

"Totalizer! No!" His tubby medafighter Sloan fell to his knees at the site of his broken medabot. Two other medabots, a red peppercat and a blue coloured krosserdog lay busted in the fountain being retrieved by their owners Samantha and Spike.

"You don't know power yet, go and get Koji if you don't want a round two." A blue haired medafighter, probably the winner, looked serious, but you couldn't really tell with the hair covering his eyes.

"Who cares about Koji? We taking you down!" Metabee ran into the scene closely followed by Ikki with Brass recording everything from the side with the rest of the crowd. The boy turned his head to the pair.

"And you are?"

_I don't believe it _Ikki thought to himself. _This guy has seriously never heard of us? And yet he's looking for Koji of all people?_

"Who do you think _you_ are? Coming to challenge Koji yet you don't even know the number one medafighter in Japan?

"Actually you are only number three," Brass corrected.

"Whatever! I'm Ikki Tenryou."

"And my names Metabee," and as one they said

"And we're gonna make you kiss your bot goodbye!" The kid smiled. If Ikki and Metabee weren't so heated they would have noticed something very wrong about the atmosphere around them. Erika realised it and her eyes grew wide with fear. Brass's scopes scanned the machinery going on underneath the Zorin and quickly realised something was not right before her systems crashed from the shock of what she had seen. For a while Erika forgot all about her 'scoop' and completely freaked out.

"Ikki! Don't fight! Look around you for a second! The park is littered with shutdown medabots of all kinds, all of them belonging to previous challengers. There are hundreds of them! And why haven't the owners retrieved them yet? From how some people are shaking they must be too scared to try! The Screws were the only people who were stupid enough to get their medaparts! And look at that Zorin. It's even older then your Metabee's body from what I know yet even after all that beating it is still perfectly fine!" Ikki checked and true enough the Zorin didn't have a scratch. It looked newer than anyone could lie that it was. But the mountains of medabots lying around everywhere seemed to be telling a very scary story about this Zorin. Ikki checked the Zorin again. When he looked closely at the Zorin it had a faint purple glow. Like a weak medaforce. But this wasn't medaforce. And frankly, he didn't want to know what it was. For a second Ikki felt something tugging at his insides. Maybe nervousness at first. But it kept growing and poisining him inside. Fear!

"Yo, Ikki, I know you're not feeling 100% up there, but this guy is hurting people and their medabots. We know that aint right. So if being number 1 means battling creeps like him, then you know what to do." Ikki turned to look at his friend. He wasn't shouting in his usual Metabee manner. He was quiete and more serious then he'd ever seen him. His eyes weren't the usual Metabee green anymore. They had turned a deep purple and he was emiting his bright green medaforce glow. This was the real deal. Ikki didn't know who was creeping him out more. Metabee or that Zorin. But he wasn't scared anymore. Metabee wiped out all the doubt he was feeling in his mind.

"Right, it's robattle time!"

"Don't you get it? He's gonna cream you! Back down before thi…" Whatever Erika was going to say was rudely interrupted by yours truly…

"Then it's agreed!" A flying saucer shaped like a giant medal came wizzing through the sky. Everyone looked up. "I officially declare this a submission robattle! As such, I shall act as referee, me, Mr. Referee!" Mr. Referee was lowered down by a futuristic tractor beam. "The rules are simple! The first medabot to stop the other from functioning wins. The loser must then submit one medapart to the winner, for keeps! Medafighters ready?" The blue haired boy smiled and his Zorin's glow became brighter. Everyone's medawatches started to show the data of the competing medabots.

"If you battle me, your medabot may not be able to robattle again."

_**Zorin Medabot corporation/ Extrteme tech**_

_**Medafighter: unkown**_

_**Specialty: Shadow sword**_

_**Signature: Unkown**_

"You don't even have your upgraded parts! For the love of all that's good Ikki, STOP!" Erika was panicking. Brass's systems rebooted but she was jittering with bolts going loose everywhere. Her 'hair' ribbon had even fallen out.

"We're willing to take that chance!" Ikki ignored Erika and didn't look like he was about to back down.

"That's right, I'm gonna Metabee-bop ya!" Metabee's electronic eyes glowed with energy

_**Metal-beetle (upgraded to Metabee) Medabot corporation**_

_**Medafighter: Ikki Tenryou**_

_**Specialty: Seeker missile**_

_**Signature: Medaforce**_

"Alright medabots, robattle!"

"Attack mode Metabee!" Metabee fired a volley of laser canons and shredded the ground underneath the Zorin. Dust was blowing everywhere in an attempt to obliterate the Zorin on one blow. But it wasn't enough. Zorin moved like lightning dodging every bullet that came his way. Metabee stopped to reload.

"Zorin, syn sword!" Zorin leaped into the air rotating like a spinning top to come crashing down on the spot where Metabee would have been if he hadn't moved out at the last second. Cracks formed in the ground around the impact zone sending shock waves along the ground knocking everyone but the combatants themselves off balance. Metabee knew, one slip and they're all dead.

Zorin, rapid slash!" The Zorin yanked his claw out of the ground and charged at Metabee like some kind of blue blur. Metabee tried to block the next attack but the Zorin seemed to somehow clone itself into multiple opponents to attack Metabee from all sides. Metabee couldn't escape without being torn to shreds.

"Ikki, what now? He's boxed me in!" Ikki hesitated for a bit before replying

"Metabee, fire your seeker missles to the ground where you're at."

"What? You've said some crazy stuff but now you're just trippin!"

"Metabee just do it!" Metabee aimed his head cannons to the floor and fired. Over time Ikki had bought far more dangerous ammunition for Metabee's cannons so this explosion was enough to have everyone sheilding their eyes. Even the camera Brass had set on a tripod had a cracked lens. Luckily Brass's eyes could record whatever they saw into the camera's memory card while Erika replaced the lens. Metabee was seen flying overhead from the blast while the Zorin amazingly was able to run out of it.

_**Metabe legs and arms at 60% damage. Head at 25% damage.**_

"Metabee, fire at Zorin," Ikki said hurridly. He wasn't about to lose to some old bucket of bolts and his creepy medafighter. While in midair Metabee fired four more missiles at the Zorin. The Zorin sideflipped over the first one and some way or another, cut straight through the second one without going up in flames. However shots three and four proved too much for the Zorin.

_**Leg and arms 100% damage. Function ceased. Chain reaction, head medapart 75% damage.**_

The Zorin's parts kept having miniature explosions and it failed to respond to it's medafighters commands. It's master smiled.

"Zorin, use your antennae," The enemy said with a smug grin.

_Whats that gonna help with, _Ikki thought _If all KWG antennaes do is make their aim better? _But Ikki didn't know what was coming. The Zorin got up like some kind of zombie and his antennae started changing colours until it stopped on yellow. Machinery was heard as gears meshed together to try and repair the damaged parts. Electricity crackled and even the smell of melting plastic seemed to be disapearing. A sickening crack was heard as his left arm snapped back in place and the dents on his right arm popped out. The metal in his legs began to brighten from the dull grey that usually comes to shutdown parts. Zorin was back and ready to put the slam down again.

"Zorin, rapid slash!" The Zorin charged for Metabee and split up again. But this time Ikki wouldn't do something so suicidal.

"Metabee! It's only one Zorin! He's just moving so fast that you think it has cloned. Focus your mind and attack or just spin around repeatedly shooting!" Metabee was about to put this into action.

"Zorin, change head medapart configuration to dragon type!" All the Zorin's heads changed again from yellow to red and they all laid tiny turrets on the ground. "Formation gamma!" The guns were all lined up to look like a _y _flat on the ground with Metabee in the middle. "Fire!" The Zorins cleared out and the guns all fired at once peircing straight through Metabee's machinegun arm which exploded instantly.

_**Left arm 100% damage. Function ceased.**_

Metabee fell to the ground and made a coughing sound. Oil came out of his head cannons as a replacement for whatever would come out of a humans mouth. Again the boy smiled. This time it looked like he was enjoying Metabee's obvious suffering.

"I will spare your medabot if you can get Koji here quickly. Maybe his Sumilidon will put up more of a fight than this defective piece of junk." Metabee started to twitch back to life as he started making a his usual cheap imitation of a beetle's pincers.

"Kikikikikikaa! I am not **defective!**" As he said this the whole park around them darkened and his bright green glow reapeared. "Dude… I rock."

"Zorin dragon formation!" Zorin set up the guns all over the field again. It was Ikki's turn to smile.

"Nothing can stop a full blast of medaforce. Your Zorin's toast!" Metabee got into a cool pose.

"It's time to kiss your bot goodbye! MEDAFORCE!" But this time It wasn't a full blast from Metabee's arms, it was a massive explosion of power. Everything electronic seemed to be going haywire. The camera's view became fuzzed over and almost broke again. Brass shutdown again and the Zorin who was right in the thick of it got bowled over by the attack. As the smoke cleared it was clear that the guns were destroyed.

"Zorin, what happened?" The kid now didn't seem so happy. Zorin's antennae changed back to blue. "Zorin dragon formation now!" Zorin tried but only a few sparks came out of his antennae. Ikki looked puzzled.

_What did Metabee do? That wasn't medaforce which was used just know, or at least none that I know. So what did Metabee do? And why did the turrets shut down along with everyone's phones yet the medabots only seemed a bit dazed? Why can't Zorin use his gun formation anymore? I guess Metabee just learnt a powerful new move but can't use it properly due to lack of experience. If anything I should be grateful to his new power. I hope it's a new skill because if that was luck I don't want to take this win, if Metabee can still move that is._

"Ikki, what… did I… do?" Metabee looked puzzled.

"Metabee are you all right?" But by then the Zorin had already recovered and was charging Metabee with his hammer. "Metabee, you're too close to him, get around him and use your rifle…"That's how this had all started. And know Metabee was pinned to the ground by that same Zorin. "Metabee, how much power do you have left?"

"Enough to take out this **defective **piece of scrap metal!" Metabee did a breakdancing spin on his head to get the Zorin off him before getting on his feet and blasting him with his rifle.

"Zorin, knight mode." Zorin's horns started glowing bright purple and all of Metabee's bullets bounced off of him as if there was some kind of force field. Metabee was starting to get more frustrated by the second.

"Yo! How can that junk bot keep doing near impossible stuff with his horns? That aint cool! That aint right! That's wack! He's using cheat codes! He's an alien in disguise! He stole Rokusho's fighting spirit and is using it against us! He's…" Metabee kept going on while Ikki stood unbelieving.

_This guy isn't right! Zorin doesn't have any of these skills! Warbandit and Sumilidon can't even keep up with this! He's been running circles around us and whenever we find an opening he uses a skill he __**doesn't have**__ to escape! How can I beat I guy like this? If there's one thing I know, I have to take out those antennae. They're causing a lot of trouble for everyone._

"Metabee, will you shut up and listen! Get up close and personal," steam erupted from Metabee's canons as he turned to Ikki angrily

"You telling me to shut up? Are you the one fighting a guy who can make earthquakes whenever he wants? The guy who makes the speed of light wish it was faster? Why should I listen to you when all you've done is get me killed?" Ikki ignored Metabee and continued, whispering into the medawatch so that he wouldn't be heard by the Zorin.

"Get close and grab his horns. Don't let go no matter what. You are going to rip his horns off. Once you do that, he's powerless. Or at least he can't defend himself." Metabee gave up arguing and charged at the Zorin. Erika finally found her voice.

"What a scoop! This is possibly the most heated robattle the world will ever know! I Erika Amazake am here live witnessing an epic robattle between Ikki Tenryou and… this person with his Zorin! The energy going around here is epic and you can actually feel the power of the two Medabots through the ground! Each impact is sending shock waves through the air and we ourselves in the audience are struggling to stay standing!" The video from the robattle was being broadcast to the school network and even on the internet, but you didn't need to see the fight online to feel the shock of the battle from multiple blocks away.

Metabee grabbed the Zorin's horns and in the process took multiple hits from the Zorin. Metabee's eyes were beginning to dim.

"Metabee stay focused! Fire the last of your seeker missiles, point blank!" Metabee aimed at the Zorin's face. He couldn't just fire and count on it homing in on Zorin because his seeker computer got shut down. He fired the first one from his left horn into the Zorin's face. The battlefield became engulfed in smoke. Then a second bang was heard and the two medabots flew apart.

_**Zorin left arm and legs 100% damage. Head 90% damage. Horn upgrade shutdown.**_

_**Metabee right arm and legs 100% damage. Head 95% damage. Warning, shutdown imminent. Functions halted.**_

Both medabots were shaking from the explosions and it looked like someone was going to collapse soon. Metabee's eyes turned dark and misted over. Oil was leaking out from all over his body and even Zorin who was missing an arm and whose horns were in Metabee's hands, seemed better off. Metabee was swaying side to side.

"Come on Metabee! Get up!" Ikki was screaming from the side but Metabee couldn't hear him.

_Whoa, it looks like this guy just Metabee-bopped me_. _I'm the one who's kissing my bot goodbye. I can see why this guy said we'd never be able to robattle again. I'm struggling just to stand, imagine another fight. My back is hurting like crazy. Something else is hurting along with it. Is that my medal? Is it cracked? It looks like I'm really gonna kiss my bot good bye…_

"Is that all you've got, Metabee?" Metabee's eyes lit up. The Zorin… spoke? "If you claim to be the best in Japan yet you're so weak, then you're lying to yourself more than anyone. You're a joke. No wonder Warbandit destroyed your team so quickly. You held them all back. Belzelga sacrificed itself to save you and Sumilidon forced the medaforce out of himself the second time not for Koji, but to protect you. When Rokusho ejected your medal with the medaforce, Ikki had to find your medal which you so carelessly let eject. You are a disgrace to medabots everywhere. You're always getting your backside saved by someone else and then arrogantly claiming to be 'your own medafighter'. You had to have everyone give you their parts to fight Mega-Emperor and you still lost, having Arcbeetle and Space medafighter X save you. You don't deserve that rare medal of yours." Metabee started glowing. Not green but all the colours of the rainbow all flying crazily around as Metabee coursed with pure meda-energy.

"I am not relying on anybody. I work together with Ikki. I don't rely in him." Metabee's eyes flashed dangerously and any normal person would be paralyzed with fear if they saw this sight.

"Please, you can't work with such a weak medafighter. There are many things separating us. You became strong due to luck. What if you didn't have that rare medal of yours like Sumilidon? He got that from the bond he shared with his master. You can lie that you did the same but Arcbeetle isn't that close with his master anymore and he has the medaforce. It is just the power hidden in your ancestors' genes. You don't deserve that medal of yours." Now the whole park turned dark. The sky itself blackened and the clouds were actually moving towards the combatant's. Metabee's medaforce light shined brighter than ever before and everyone had to shield their eyes.

"**This power was not luck! I am not Metabee because fate decided to throw me a hand!" **Zorin suddenly exploded in a bright purple light.

"**Then prove it to me! Pit your medaforce against mine! We will see whose souls are stronger!" **Zorin brought his claws back preparing for a full dose of the medaforce. Metabee stood at the other end of the park as lightning struck, in grim defiance of the storm he was attracting, the Zorin he was facing and most of all, the words being spoken by that same Zorin.

"**It's time to kiss your bot goodbye!" **Metabee yelled his now famous battle cry which was heard for many miles around. **"MEDAFORCE!" **Metabee fired out a blast from his hands of unspeakable proportions. At the same time Zorin cut straight through the air launching his own medaforce attack cutting straight through the ground leaving behind a large chasm as it weaved its path of destruction to greet its counterpart. All the spectators were blasted back a few meters and the clothes of the medafighters were rippling in the blast wave. The nearby building windows were shattered and the camera which had taken much abuse was finally destroyed. Brass started sparking and nearly shut down again but stayed online to record the end results. The explosion was massive. Everyone was waiting apprehensively for the results which were obscured by the smoke. The smell of frying circuits hung heavy in the air like the smell of death. Everyone's medawatches started to beep. Everyone whose medawatch didn't break in the blast checked it now to see the data from the match.

_**Zorin head medapart 99% damage.**_

_**Metabee head medapart 100% damage. Function ceased.**_

"Function ceased! The winner is Zorin!" Ikki fell to his knees as he surveyed the scene. There was a gigantic crack from where the Zorin fired his medaforce and a large chasm from where Metabee's medaforce had been. There was a giant crater in the ground from where the two met in the middle. Two smaller chasms from Metabee split up around the side of the Zorin and a thin crack went from the blast zone through Metabee's medaforce crack to Metabee himself.

_The Zorin's medaforce, cut through Metabee's? And Metabee himself… _Ikki turned his head towards where Metabee, Metabee's body was still there. Standing upright.

"Metabee! You're still," But he stopped there. The medal ejected and Metabee's body got torn in half. It was probably from the previous medaforce attack. Everyone, even Erika who usually finished professionally gasped. Someone in the crowd shouted "We told you so!" "Metabee!" Ikki ran over to Metabee's destroyed body and tried to pick it up. Whatever he touched on it broke into pieces. He frantically began searching for a medal considering that his best friend's life depended on it. He saw something shine on the ground. He scrambled over to it quickly just to find it was cracked almost completely in half. It was like a large gaping wound on his spirit right down the middle, where the green gem was. A single tear was seen rolling down Ikki's cheek as he saw his destroyed friend. _We went through all of that hard work for nothing._ The blue haired boy was seen smiling for real.

"That was exhilarating! No one here had laid so much as a scratch on Zorin and you very near shut him down. And what's more, Zorin has never talked to anyone during a fight. Even out of battle! If you're Metabee could do that then I feel finding Koji would be way too much for Zorin, even at his level of strength," but Ikki was getting up and the tears were flowing more freely now. He walked over to the kid through the medaforce crater straight to the boy and forgetting all about being a good sport, gave him a colossal haymaker punch that got everyone gasping. Spit and blood was seen flying and people later exaggerated about seeing his teeth saying bye to his mouth. The kid tumbled over and fell to the ground. He looked up at Ikki to see he was in more anguish than he could have possibly realised. "I guess I shouldn't have destroyed your medal. But if it broke in the first place it must have been too weak…" Another sucker punch was dealt by Ikki. "Maybe you would prefer it if I told you why I was looking for Koji. It's too bad you won't get all the answers here though. But I can tell you I was looking for the strongest medafighters this world shall ever know, and I waited till now for them to appear. I got lucky to get them without causing permanent damage to them or their medabots. Most of the guys I already have but I'm still missing…"

"Freeze where you are! This is the select corps, investigating the massive energy waves that have been disturbing the peace. Put your hands up!" Naturally no body put their hands and they all just ran wildly in a panic. Their Land Brachios fired out sleeping gas in their missiles along with the select corpse themselves. Sleeping bodies began to hit the floor but most people had already left. Erika stayed with the select-corps avoiding the tear gas just to interview them on why they were so spectacularly late. She even borrowed a gas mask from the face of a shutdown Belzelga. Amazingly, the gas avoided the two boys in the middle and hid them from the select corps.

"As I was saying, I still need to get, Koji and Sumilidon, Victor and Warbandit, Hikaru Agata, or Space medafighter X with Arcbeetle, possibly, I'm considering you if your Metabee is still alive, and… No I won't tell you that yet... But maybe... Kam and Black beetle!"


	2. The Medalias

Two boys were standing in the middle of what used to be a park. Smoke and a type of yellow gas drifted around the area. The park was scarred with craters and destroyed property and right in the center was an enormous crater with the two boys in the middle of it. One kid had a high collared red shirt and blue shorts. His dark hair was tied up at the back. The other boy had dark blue hair obscuring his facial features with a simple blue T-shirt and black jeans. The air hung heavy with the smell of burning gasoline, fried circuits and melting plastic. Sirens were heard blaring in the background as the select corps tried to restore order to the park filled with frenzied observers.

"I still need to get, Koji and Sumilidon, Victor and Warbandit, Hikaru Agata with Arcbeetle, possibly, I'm considering you if your Metabee is still alive, and… Maybe… Kam and Blackbeetle!" The blue haired boy had a sadistic grin on his face and his opponent, Ikki, looked at him with apparent disgust.

"So you don't care about all the medabots you hurt along the way? You can break down medabots in the blink of an eye for whatever stupid reason you have and you don't even care? Take a look genius and see the condition of both our medabots! Aren't you even going to save him? You're both friends right? If you're gonna end me and Metabee's journey then you should at least let your Zorin live his! He fought his heart out for you, even Victor would admit it and he's a selfish jerk!" The kid kept smiling. "Who are you to smile at that?" Ikki pointed at the wrecked medabots as he said 'that'. Metabee's body was beyond recognition and the Zorin was just barely standing up. Its parts all seemed to have been destroyed from the battle and it didn't look like it would be moving anytime soon. Zorin looked up at the two medafighters before a snap was heard.

"Ikki… you… don't… get it… yet…" Zorin's speech functions were shutting down as the energy was being used as emergency power.

"What I don't get is why you even listen to this freak! I thought Medabots with rare medals are meant to have strong personalities, and yet…"

"Ikki!" A voice was heard from the other side of the fog.

_Is that Samantha? But didn't she run away with the rest of the screws? _To answer no to Ikki's question she spoke again with a hint of panic in her usually strong voice. "How is Metabee doing?" _Metabee… His medal is still there! _Forgetting about his previous argument he scrambled towards Metabee's damaged body. Ikki stopped for a split second to observe the damage done to the body. Metabee had gone through a lot in that body and if he saw this image he would hunt down whoever did that to his beautiful body even if it was mega emperor. Ikki began frantically searching his medal. He had seen it as it fell earlier and he was hoping that the crack was imaginary.

"I found you!" Ikki picked up an old looking beetle medal. There were chips and dents in the medal and one horrific crack ran straight the green gem in the center. Ikki let a tear slide down his cheek.

"If I were you, I would leave quickly," the weird kid said. Ikki looked up at him and as usual, he couldn't read his emotions. With the select corps closing in, Ikki actually agreed with him. Ikki picked up his broken medaparts and placed the medal in his medawatch before running away through a gap in the gas cloud. He passed by the blue haired boy and for a brief moment he thought he saw his hair lift ever so slightly. But he wasn't about to stop and see what was hidden behind it. Not with all those select corps guys right behind him. Getting caught here would not look good for him. As they passed each other, the boy whispered in his ear: "If you're Metabee survives, then you're as strong as you say. And if that's the case, I will find you. If you prove yourself then, I will tell you my motives. But until then, farewell."

"Miss Nae, open up Miss Nae, please!" Banging was heard on the gate of a large workshop as Ikki tried to get in. Ikki pounded furiously on the gate like his life depended on it, and really, Metabee's life was at stake instead. The gate swung open to reveal a young woman, possibly in her early twenties. She was wearing a mechanics outfit with oil stains on it and her hair tied back to keep it out of her way during her work.

"Ikki, calm down. What's the matter? And why isn't Metabee with you today?" Ikki kept hopping from one foot to the other.

"Metabee, he got hurt real bad! I need to get to Dr. Aki but it would take too long and you were the closest person with a car who would take me there and please, please, please, please, please take me there," Miss Nae began to frown. After seeing Metabee's thrashed medal and parts she started up her mobile store and took Ikki to Dr. Aki's lab. Miss Nae never got flustered over anything so even then she was calming Ikki down trying to get the whole story from him. Ikki explained the story and even with the dire situation at hand, couldn't help boasting about the fight though excluding that he still lost.

"…And he was moving like a ninja all whoosh and whizz! But he didn't scare me and Metabee! I told him to fire at the ground and half the park, no, the **whole park **blew up! Then I made Metabee fire four, no eight missiles at the Zorin! Blew it to pieces! Nothing survives **sixteen** seeker missiles. And…"

"Ikki, if Metabee is seriously damaged then shouldn't you be more worried about his medal than some hero story?" Ikki thought for a bit before answering.

"Well I can't worry know, Metabee needs all the support he can get. And with how stubborn that guy is, I doubt he'll succumb to death that easily. Besides, I feel that he's in safe hands around you Miss Nae!" At that the amateur mechanic blushed.

Finally, the car came to a halt outside the Medabot Corporation. Using Miss Nae's ID card, they were able to skip all security protocol and go straight to Dr. Aki. He was an elderly looking man and today he was wearing a simple chemist's lab coat as he was working.

"Good afternoon Ikki. Miss Nae, how's my favorite granddaughter doing?" There was no time for friendly greetings and family talk so to cut to the chase, Ikki just shoved Metabee's medal in Dr. Aki's face. All questions asked right there, fix it.

"This is looking pretty serious," Dr. Aki said. There was the strong smell of musty books and ancient objects dating from periods unimaginable in the strange 'medal' room where they kept all the rare medals that most medals are manufactured from. Metabee's medal was suspended in a tank of green liquid with a team of scientists gathered around computers. Dr. Aki, Miss Nae, Ikki and Erika who had somehow slipped in unnoticed, where all in the room. When no one wanted to ask 'how serious' Aki continued knowing that was what was on everyone's mind. "I've only ever seen a medal worse than this once. And that came from… Never mind where. The green gem is smashed. That is very hard to do.

"What do you mean?" Erika asked.

"Well you see, the energy contained to make a medal's abilities activate are contained within this little gem right here. While a medal itself can be broken relatively easily, the green gem in the middle known as a medalias is diamond hard. It is not broken easily and during and while inside a medal, contains all of its knowledge, combat skills and heritage. If you know how to, you can change the medalias of your medabot with another one without harming your medabot. This is done if you want to upgrade a particular talent. Say Spyke wants to make his Krosserdog a good shooter and you want Metabee's punches to be stronger. Having a monkey medal really makes it impossible for Spike and Metabee's medal is not compatible with hand-to-hand combat either. You can swap your medalias with his medalias without erasing your medabot's memory. This makes it keep its old skills like Metabee's shooting and Krosserdog's hand-to-hand, although not as good, and get each other's skills. Normally it's fine. But once you insert the medalias, it must stay there until you go through the same procedure again. If you just broke it somehow, the skills being transferred between medalias and medal would be corrupted. Just like saving data during a power cut. Bad things can happen. The worst case being a limiter release.

"Limiter release?" Everyone but Miss Nae asked at once.

"Yes. Now normally this isn't an issue because the medalias is too hard to break. If it went under that kind of stress the medal would eject anyway. But now…

"No way!" Ikki shouted out. "I might not know what the limiter is, but I know even he can't break diamond. That medaforce attack was strong, but this diamond stuff also has meda-energy protecting it. You can't break that!"

"That's the thing. No attack could have done that. So now I'll ask you, what did you do that was unusual in the fight?" Ikki stopped to think about it. Everyone stared at him. After ten seconds of thought he answered.

"I think in the fight Metabee used a weird type of attack or medaforce against Zorin. Zorin kept laying turrets around the area so I told Metabee to use the medaforce. But instead of a full power attack, he exploded. After the explosion Zorin couldn't use his formation trap. Does that count as something?" Aki looked distant for a while.

"Cancel Formation…" Everyone looked towards Dr. Aki. "Ikki, you have only ever seen three types of medals using the medaforce: Kabuto or rhinoceros beetle, Kuwagata or stag beetle and alien medals. These medals all have similar attacks, but if you ever see another medabot use the medaforce, you will notice that it's nothing like Metabee or Rokusho's. Even if you put it in Metabee's body it wouldn't work."

"So what does this have to do with my medal?" Ikki was getting more agitated by the second.

"Well, I don't think you know this but each medal can use a maximum of three different types of medaforce." Everyone all made confused noises and even Miss Nae didn't know this information. "A skilled medabot can use up to three different medaforce attacks, usually unique to its own traits and skills. Your Metabee should have been able to use all three medaforce attacks to use that attack. It is known as formation cancel. It cancels all formation attacks like Zorin's gamma formation."

_Something didn't quite right about that last sentence but…_

"Metabee probably just didn't know about that type of attack and so never used it even with the power to do it. He must have been in enough of a state to activate his hidden power." Ikki finally lost it.

"We don't care about this stuff! Can you fix Metabee or not?" Dr. Aki hesitated for the longest ten seconds ever before answering.

"Maybe. But he won't be perfect. He may not have all his memories and his attitude could even change. These are just guesses but one thing you must remember is this: **don't use the medaforce!" **Ikki looked at Dr. Akihabara hard in the eye and nodded. He would even give up being a medafighter if it meant saving his best friend, losing the medaforce even after hearing Metabee could use three of them was no big deal. "That attack Metabee used is a medaforce type three level. Not really the strongest, but the hardest to use. Doing it in the thick of battle must have damaged his medalias already, just enough to crack it."

"Thanks Dr. Aki, I appreciate it a lot," Ikki said with a hint of sorrow at the pain Metabee must have gone through just to use the attack. But then remembered the destroyed parts he was using. "But what about his medaparts?" Miss Nae spoke up this time.

"Ikki, remember those parts I gave you six months ago? The ones you asked me to repair?" Ikki remembered them all too well. Without those, there would still be Kilobots running around at large numbers, of course they never completely disappeared though _[Author note: These are the parts Metabee gets in season three of Medabots. Some people have never seen season three so as with anything to do with that season, I will try my very best to explain them in a way that doesn't involve author notes so sticks with the story without people getting lost along the way. This is the last note you will see from me!]_. Kilobots were similar to medabots but had no emotions, were developed by extreme tech and not the Medabot Corporation and were far more powerful. Because of their heartless nature, they were often seen with bullies, destroying property, breaking rules and generally being associated with rouge medafighters. All of them were only compatible with the emotionless ex-medals and stronger but warm hearted neo-ex-medals. Metabee couldn't lay a dent in them at first but he met Miss Nae, Dr. Aki's granddaughter who gave Metabee a new body. The only reason Ikki didn't use those parts against Zorin was because after a fight versus Extreme tech's Griffon, the opposite of the medabot Particle [only seen in Japanese games], they weren't functioning properly.

"Well, I've fixed them better than before. Come, let me show you while we wait for grandfather to fix Metabee's medal!" Miss Nae left the room and Ikki followed her out of the eerie medal room to the battle test simulation room.

They entered a large metal room filled with rocks and leftover medaparts. Behind a glass window opposite the door was some complicated machinery. Each computer monitor had a team of five scientists and researchers, all of which had lab coats, although not all of them as shiny white as Dr. Aki's. Miss Nae smiled at one of them through the window and gave him a thumbs up. He blushed and smiled a shy smile back before he was pushed out of the way by a female researcher. She turned a few dials on the machinery and spoke into the loudspeaker.

"Nae, long time no see. Aki called ahead and we've set everything up for you to test out. Are you ready?" Miss Nae simply nodded her head and smiled her usual sweet smile that reminded Ikki so much of Karin. _Ah Karin, if only you could hear me from your new school far from here, I think of you when I'm around Miss Nae. I guess that's why Erika keeps getting jealous when I'm around her. _Karin and Koji had moved to a different school last year and it was kind of lonely with the hyper active Rintaro moved out of town. Koji had come back for the holiday but Karin was sick so couldn't come. Ikki's mind snapped back to reality when he realized he wasn't standing in a dreary lab anymore. It was raining in a dark alley with flashing street lights blinking at them from their home on a pole and large forces of medabots were moving towards him and Miss Nae. Ikki's medawatch flashed as it recognized the opponents.

**Unitrix Extreme tech**

**Medafighter: Medabot Corporation (MDC)**

**Specialty: hunting KWG types**

**Signature: Guerrilla warfare**

**Exor Extreme tech**

**Medafighter: MDC**

**Specialty: hunting KBT types**

**Signature: Flexor sword**

**Roadrunner Meta smile**

**Medafighter: MDC**

**Specialty: extreme speed/ medachange**

**Signature: Medaforce**

Ikki gulped. He had seen Unitrix and Exor before. Unitrix looked similar to War bandit in that it looks very much like a soldier or tribal warrior with a lion headdress. Unitrix did not have a metal mane like Warbandit though and it was an upgraded form. Exor was very much like Sumilidon but without his mane either. Roadrunner was new to him though. It resembled a small ostrich with bigger wings designed for flying. It was light blue with details such as its wing and eyes being yellow. It had a large rocket inserted in its rear end to push it along during its flight. His medawatch said the leader liked using medaforce. Most medawatches don't say whether or not something uses medaforce unless the user wants the enemy to know. Now all Ikki had to worry about was what _type _of medaforce it was. Ikki began to sweat. He was planning on telling Miss Nae something brave like 'I'll protect you to my last breath,' but he suddenly didn't feel brave without Metabee by his side. It was just like that first time with the rockers. Miss Nae was chilled though as she brought up her medawatch to her mouth.

"Transport, Saikachis!" A blue flash was seen as a large ball of electricity hung in the air where the medabot would appear. After about five seconds the ball materialized to reveal an advanced KBT type medabot. It was more aerodynamic than its predecessor and its horns were no longer big and bulky, but smooth with a rounded red tip at the end where missiles came out. His chest had a red T on it as if it was a bow tie and the extensions on his shoulders were more curved and was a semicircle as if the cylinder was cut in half length ways. It had a yellow tip. The back of his head had two extra green lumps coming out like eyes at the back of his head. Miss Nae took her medal out of the medawatch and placed it in the medabot. A pair of sea green eyes quite different to Meetabee's appeared. "How are you feeling Honey?" Miss Nae asked politely. The medabot turned its head towards Miss Nae and in a feminine voice replied.

"I've never felt better Nae." The medawatches flashed again.

**Saikachis (Honey) Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Miss Nae**

**Specialty: Seeker missile**

**Signature: Demolition mode**

"Are you ready Honey?" The Metabee like medabot who was actually Miss Nae's assistant Honey let steam escape from her horns in reply. "Alright then, Honey, show them your action mode!" Honey ran forward at incredibly high speed straight into a group of Unitrix before transforming into a Metabee with wheels so that it looked similar to a car. She swerved around bullets and medabots like they were traffic cones and charged straight for an Exor. At the last minute before collision she returned to normal to boost herself over the Exor. While in mid-air she fired using her machinegun instantly shutting down the Exor's functions. She landed neatly on her feet and spun around on the balls of her feet parts and fired both her guns at once into the crowd. Two Exors managed to make it out of the dust cloud. They jumped in Sumilidon fashion to land on top of Homey. Honey transformed into action mode again and with one Exor still hanging on, drove off. The other Exors all transformed to a four legged form and chased after Honey.

"Honey, 180 degree turn, now." Honey skidded around to face her opponents while still facing the opponents and drove in reverse, releasing the Exor in the process. She then fired her missiles at the crowd, ejecting their medals in the process. She transformed back to her normal form and turned to face roadrunner. In the blink of an eye, she was bowled over by it as it used its long, developed legs. She got up again just to be knocked over. This time she had enough and fired he missiles at the super speedy roadrunner. Roadrunner jumped and took off from the ground leaving just in time for the missiles to pass underneath roadrunner. One missile blew up on the ground while the other one turned around and chased roadrunner. Just then Roadrunner began to glow green.

"Miss Nae, I think it has the medaforce," Ikki said. Miss Nae frowned. Roadrunner yelled.

"**Medaforce!" **A flash of green was seen blinding everyone for at least two seconds before they saw roadrunner was gone. Occasional blue flashes were seen and the missile which was fired slammed into the pavement. Honey looked around confused. Suddenly Honey's right arm got ripped by a quick blue and yellow flash. Another flash got her left leg. Suddenly scratches sterted appearing all over Honey's body.

"Miss Nae, what's happening?" Ikki was looking worried seeing something so much like Metabee getting destroyed. Miss Nae however stayed cool.

"Roadrunner has a rabbit medal. Its medaforce makes it extremely fast. However, this one doesn't look like it can control its speed. No problem for Honey's demolition mode, right?" To answer the question, Honey began transforming into a tank like medabot. Extra parts were transported to her body such as armor and an extra cannon. Her head cannons folded up to the back of her head and her machine gun and rifle slid up to her shoulders and pointed forward like turrets. It bulked up and went on four legs with an extra two coming out for support. The blue flashes were no longer harming Honey and she stood strong for another ten seconds. After that the medaforce seemed to wear out and Roadrunner stopped dead on the floor in front of honey. All his parts seemed to be glowing red hot and he wasn't moving. "Now,medablast!" The cannon on Honey's head that replaced her head cannon glowed and energy swirled around it in a blue spiral. Roadrunner stared at the cannon with a blank, unreadable look. "Fire!" Honey shot out a large cannon blast which carved up the floor underneath it like a turkey. It slamed into Roadrunner in a burst of sparks and flames. Roadrunner lay down charred with smoke coming off of his body. A metallic clink was heard as his ejected from his back. "Great job Honey, you can come back now." Honey deactivated action mode and walked back to Miss Nae and Ikki. When she got closer, Ikki noticed there was a silver metal head band aroud her head.

"Miss Nae, why does Honey have that headband around her head? Those parts never had that the last time I saw."

"It's an upgrade I added. It's for better reflexes and speed. But it also increases the comunication between the medal and the medabot and magnifies the power. It's designed for medabots with damaged medals, or who have gone through shocking experiences like a decesed medafighter or being abandoned, or even when Brass tried to scan Zorin. It might be good for your Metabee. Just be sure you don't put it on a healthy medabot.

They were back in the medal room. Everyone waited apprehensively as Dr. Aki took Metabee's medal out of the green jar. It was covered with a silver coating and the crack was filled with something green, like an emerald. Aki slowly picked up the medal and placed it in the KBT body which Honey was using. A low whirring noise was heard as systems were returning to life. Everyone was rigid with anticipation as gears were heard clinking. The medawatches began to read the data of an activatung medabot. Everyone was silent and the only sound heard was the medabot's functions. And then...

**Yes, I'm wack like that... Wait till next time! Roadrunner was my own design here and you'll see more new guys later. Peace!**


	3. Enter Windsail

Dr. Aki took Metabee's medal out of the green jar. It was covered with a silver coating and the crack was filled with something green, like an emerald. Aki slowly picked up the medal and placed it in the KBT body which Honey was using. A low whirring noise was heard as systems were returning to life. Everyone was rigid with anticipation as gears were heard clinking. The medawatches began to read the data of an activating medabot. Everyone was silent and the only sound heard was the medabot's functions.

"Come on Metabee, please wake up," Ikki was saying as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was sure medabots didn't normally take that long to wake up. Sweat slowly trickled down Dr. Aki's forehead as he waited to see whether his hard work had paid off. The medabots fingers twitched, twice before the systems all went quiet again with no further movement. Ikki's heart sank as he realized that his best friend was possibly never waking up again. "Metabee," a single silent tear dripped onto the floor.

"No! We were so close!" Dr. Aki banged his fist on the table in frustration and Miss Nae loosened up with a dejected look on her face. Erika lowered her notepad not willing to write about a dead medabot when her friend was so upset about it.

"Metabee," Ikki shook his head refusing to believe it. "Metabee, hurry up and wake up. I'm your medafighter, Ikki. You have to hear me wake up!" Ikki started banging the parts with his fist.

"Ikki, those parts are expensive, what are you doing?" Dr. Aki questioned. But Ikki couldn't hear him over the sound of his own grief.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up, darn it Metabee just get up you stupid piece of junk!" Just as he said it, he knocked the medabot on the side of the head with a satisfying clang, bruising his fist in the process. A pair of green lights where the eyes should have been flashed on. Ikki stopped hitting him and looked down at his friend with hope in his eyes. "Metabee! You're up!" Metabee turned his head towards Ikki as the data finally registered on everyone's medawatches.

**Saikachis (Metabee) Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: 'I'm my own medafighter!'**

**Specialty: Meda-change**

**Signature: Seeker missiles**

Metabee raised his arm as if to shake Ikki's now bleeding hand.

"Metabee you don't have to act so for…" Metabee brought his fist back and slammed it full force into Ikki's chest, jumping in the process so he could reach it. Air gushed out of Ikki's lungs before he was pushed backwards into a wall from the force of such an impact.

"Metabee, what are you doing?" Miss Nae got up from her seat next to Dr. Aki just to have Metabee turn towards her, aiming his guns at her face.

"Everybody, get down!" Dr. Aki yelled as he dived behind a desk before the seat he was sitting in got showered buy laser bullets. The chair stuffing exploded out and a spring came loose. A chair leg was shot and cracked in half as the whole chair collapsed. But Metabee didn't stop there. He continued trying to rip through the desk everyone was sheltered behind with his bullets. Jars containing medals were cracked and the green fluids inside gushed out and spilled on the floor. Some of the fluid splatted onto Erika's hair.

"Hey, watch it Metabee!" Erika shouted angrily popping her head out of cover before ducking again as bullets sprayed where her head previously was.

"This is getting out of hand fast," Miss Nae said as a seeker missile was fired randomly up into the ceiling lights. Dr. Aki looked distressed.

"My medals! I need every single one of these and he's busy wrecking them!"

"Let's get out of here!" Erika shouted running out of the building. Metabee started chasing after them, firing all the way. Ikki came round and followed after him, remembering to ring the emergency alarm before exiting the room. A sharp ringing sound was heard throughout the building and a computerized female voice was heard issuing out instructions to the staff and personnel. Medabots scrambled out from everywhere, Tankars, Roadrunners, Belzelgas and a bunch of Kilobots with neo-ex medals. A Unitrix and Exor were talking behind a bunch of medabots.

"Are you for real? Kilobots that don't have emotions exist? My Neo-ex medal lets me think and be sensitive but some that just fight?" They were talking in there strange fashion that sounded like two machines and a human all talking at once.

"Well of course I'm serious! Little kids still use these kill-or-be-killed medabots. But they stopped selling more of these medals and only sell ones like ours. Since we can think and are more violent we have the strongest of all medals!"

"Nu-uh. This weird guy called Dr. Armond was making a medal far more powerful than all of ours combined! Dr. Aki has it here. It' called the…" Before he could finish a huge crash was heard as a section in the wall exploded. Metabee walked out and turned to face the army of medabots and the two gossiping Kilobots. A Belzelga ran up to Metabee and tried to punch his LED sockets in. Metabee ducked underneath and shot Belzelga in the head with his rifle. Before Belzelga could counter he transformed into action mode and drove through its legs into the crush of medabots. He drove to the side of the hallway and tilted on his side so he was actually driving on the wall. He drove higher up on the wall and transformed back to normal bouncing off the wall before he could be pulled down by gravity. He landed behinds all the troops who by now had started firing at Metabee but by then he was already gone.

Dr. Aki and the rest of the group exited the building closely followed by those who were defenseless such as other researchers and cleaning staff. A missile flew out of the building after them crashing into a member of staff's car. Miss Nae finally turned around holding her medawatch to her mouth.

"This has gone on long enough! Transport," Erika grabbed Miss Nae's wrist trying to stop her.

"Miss Nae, Honey isn't that good at fighting and her parts aren't designed for it either. If you robattle with her she will lose! Just leave it to the other medabots. Metabee isn't strong enough to take on a whole army!" Miss Nae turned to Erika with a serious expression on her face.

"I know. Honey can't fight so I won't use her. And Metabee can't take on a whole army but he can run away from them. With his condition he may just be trying to attack us. So now, watch this." Miss Nae brought her watch back up to her face. She rolled her sleeve up and revealed four medawatches. The pink one was possibly for Honey but the other purple watches had never been seen by Ikki or Erika. "Transport, Saldron, Aquacrown, Windsail," Miss Nae yelled as three balls of electricity hovered in the air, crackling and sending out sparks. Three medabots appeared on front of the group. Ikki stared in awe, Erika pulled out her camera. Dr. Aki smiled and the scientists who hadn't run away desperately clutching their paperwork stood to watch.

The first medabot was mainly red with orange markings and a yellow face plate. Its head had black spikes around it like a mane. Its legs were not legs at all, but a long yellow tail that trailed behind it. It was hovering off the ground. It looked like a fire medabot. The second of the three looked similar to a blue mermaid, but none that you would see in stories. It had a blue crown that looked like it was attached to her head and sparkled with the hues and colors of the ocean. She was azure with a very short but thick tail for swimming. Two tiny feet poked out from the bottom. She too could hover. The third looked similar to the blue mermaid who was probably Aquacrown. The only difference was that this one had no tail and was white. She also looked far more aerodynamic than its partners and it was floating a full two meters off the ground. Metabee shot the door off its hinges and stared at the three medabots. Dust was blown across the dry pavement. It seemed almost exactly like a cowboy showdown. All that was missing was pistols in their pockets and the dry tumbleweeds. Suddenly, someone else stole the spotlight as they all heard the prominent;

"Then it's agreed!" An incredibly large Belzelga exited the building, only to pull off its helmet and reveal Mr. Referee inside. "I officially declare this a submission robattle! I shall act as referee, me, Mr. Referee! Medafighters ready?"

"Hold up," Ikki interrupted. "Metabee doesn't have a medafighter, he can't robattle!

"He's his own medafighter! As a rogue medabot he can robattle!" Medawatches beeped as the medabots registered.

**Saldron Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Nae Akihabara**

**Specialty: Meta-morph**

**Signature: Brave attack**

**Aquacrown Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Nae Akihabara**

**Specialty: Meta-morph**

**Signature: Supportive change**

**Windsail Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Nae Akihabara**

**Specialty: Meta-morph**

**Signature: Interrupt skill**

"Medafighters ready? Medabots, rrrooooooobattlllleeeeee!" Metabee charged at the group of medabots in a blind rage or extreme stupidity.

"Windsail, change head parts," Miss Nae said calmly. The white medabot, Windsail, flew in front of its partners and her head began to morph like jelly. It turned black and purple and shot out two beams of light from its eyes. They hit Metabee full on but he kept running through it, though far slower than usual. Saldron took that moment and hopped over the medabots using her tail. Her wrists folded back to reveal guns, both aimed at Metabee. A large flame erupted from them, setting the grass in between cracks in the pavement on fire. Metabee took the full brunt of the attack but seemed to ignore it still. He ran straight on through the blazing inferno straight to Windsail. He launched into the sky, fist brought back before landing a nice clean hit to Windsail's, face. He quickly flipped over into his car form and drove in a U-turn to face Saldron. The blue Aquacrown grabbed Metabee's head antennae with a recently transformed green chameleon left arm. Metabee drove around in circles until Aquacrown let go, getting tossed into a truck. Metabee transformed back to normal and fired his famous seeker missiles. Suddenly Aquacrown turned invisible as the seeker missiles passed where she used to be. By then she could have been anywhere. Erika was eating this all up.

"Wow! Two front page stories in one week! Has Metabee finally lost his mind? Is this just another Metabee moment? Did anyone realize that Miss Nae's medabots could match Metabee for power, even if it is three on one? Three old school elemental series medabots against a newer KBT type medabot?" Miss Nae was chilled through the whole thing.

"Now Aquacrown, transform head part," Miss Nae said. The invisible Aquacrown appeared momentarily to change her head to a pink one with yellow 'hair'. Metabee paused for an instant. It looked just like a mermaid type medabot's head. It looked like an Oceana.

"What, Metabee's stopping?" Dr. Aki asked.

"Uh-huh," Ikki said. "Metabee once met an Oceana and she sorta became Metabee's girlfriend until she left. He might not be able to fight Aquacrown or any other mermaid if it has a body like Oceana's. Aquacrown doesn't look much like Oceana but…"

"…There's enough of a similarity with the same head and a tail for it to reboot his memories," Erika finished off, not once taking her eyes off of her camera. While they were talking, Aquacrown used her mermaid head to heal Windsail enough for her to get up. She hadn't shut down yet so the damage was reversible. Miss Nae's eyes brightened as an idea struck her.

"Saldron, change your right arm!" Saldron's wrists folded back into place and her whole arm expanded and unfolded, transforming until it looked exactly like Robo-Emperors Death bomb or 'Bombarder,' part. "Not into that," Miss Nae panicked slightly seeing her plan go wrong. "Okay, attack Metabee with that Bombarder and shift through your left arm until you find the Spydertrap." Saldron assaulted Metabee with a barrage of napalm bombs and missiles while her left arm constantly shifted through its vast arsenal of weapons. Metabee disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Windsail who still had her black head shot the beams again. The lasers looked as if they were draining Metabee of his energy. Metabee tried running out of the napalm attacks way but got hit by the beams and slowed down. Meanwhile Windsail kept speeding up, flying circles around Metabee. Finally, Saldron stopped on a green cannon arm with four barrel holes. "Fire!" Saldron fired out a thick thread of silky material like a gigantic spider web. It wrapped around Metabee rooting him to the spot. Aquacrown turned towards Miss Nae who was holding a silver and blue headband. Miss Nae tossed it towards Aquacrown.

"Miss Nae, is that the medal headband from before?" Ikki asked.

"Yes Ikki. I think that some of Metabee's memories are corrupted. You woke up Metabee the first time by calling him junk, right? Well doing it again must have activated his memories of the first robattle he had. He's probably trying to act it out again by attacking the first people he saw. The part of him that tells him what happened and that it was only a memory are damaged. I might be able to open them again with this."

Aquacrown had hovered over to where Metabee was and was placing the headband on his head. Metabee fired his last two missiles from point blank range. The spider silk ripped to shreds and Aquacrown fell backwards, shielding the headband in her arms before her medal ejected.

**100% damage. Functions ceased.**

Windsail darted over to Aquacrown's carcass and pried her deactivated hands off of the headband. Metabee aimed his laser canons at Windsail. Saldron's head unfolded to an Elephant like head with a wrecking ball for a trunk. Her arms morphed into shields. Saldron flew in between Metabee and Windsail, sacrificing herself taking the bullets to save her comrade. Her shield took the majority of hits. Metabee's eyes flared brighter green in annoyance and he transported more parts turning him into a tank.

"Demolition mode," Ikki said with obvious fear. The red T on Metabee's chest formed a type of visor over his eyes and the eyes on the back of his head seemed to take over. The canon on his head charged up to full power.

"Please stay strong Saldron," Miss Nae said with a worried tone of voice. Windsail was still struggling to get the headband and removing Aquacrown from battle so Saldron had to protect them. Metabee fired. A ball of blue energy made its way to Saldron. She stared at the blast unflinching as its terrifying image was reflected off of her visor until the last instant when her entire being was swallowed by the blast. The pavement rose up where the explosion took place. A charred medabot that was Saldron was left in the middle next to an ejected medal. Windsail finally got the headband out of Aquacrown's grasp and flew straight towards Metabee, her arms transforming into black crow wings with a matching purple head, making her look like a Harpy. She was screaming like one too. At the last moment before reaching Metabee she changed her left wing into a staff and whacked Metabee upside the head with it. Metabee's extra parts disengaged and he was sent back flipping through the air to land flat on his face. Metabee shakily got up and tried activating his demolition mode again. No dice. Windsail shot right towards him with two wings once again, giving him a winged clothesline. Metabee flipped into the air. While Metabee was in the air she shot up after him with her normal parts again, holding the headband. She quickly latched it onto Metabee's canon and then to make sure he got the message, she turned upside down in mid-air and latched onto Metabee's torso so that they were face-to-face as they fell.

"This should ram some sense through your thick skull," she snarled. She began to rapidly rotate with Metabee as they fell to the earth. [**Has anyone here watched Naruto? If you have then you will know that Rock Lee and Guy have a move called the **_**Primary Lotus **_**or **_**secondary Lotus**_**. That is what you are seeing right now. If you've not seen Naruto, then try and imagine a super Tombstone Piledriver where you are upside down and you and your enemy are rotating. Messed up…]**. They spun like that until they were like a giant tornado. Finally Windsail pulled up releasing Metabee to his doom. Metabee hit the ground with a solid crash. Dust swirled everywhere.

"Functions ceased! The winner is…" Mr. Referee was interrupted by a giant yellow blast of **medaforce leaving the dust cloud.** Windsail barely had time to scream before she was consumed by the attack. Windsail flew back twenty feet into the building with a crunch before she crumpled to the floor. Everyone suddenly jerked their heads to Metabee wide eyed as if saying _Oh my F'n Gosh that came from nowhere! _The last thing Windsail heard before her medal ejected was the trademark Metabee line:

"Dude, I rock…"

"Functions ceased! The winner is, Metabee!"

. . .

"Metabee are you okay?" Ikki asked. All the evacuated staff had returned back in the office as if nothing had ever happened. Everyone but Dr. Aki was checking on Metabee and peering at his medal which was still in his back. Strangely enough, Metabee wasn't trying to kill them.

"I told you I'm fine! Why can't you leave me alone… um… I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"How can you be okay if you don't even know who I am?"

"Hey, I know you; you called me defective, again! I just can't remember your name."

"Or my Birthday."

"I never knew that."

"You don't remember my mom."

"How could I forget Mrs. T? I just don't remember too well, that's all."

"Well stop playing with your headband and start remembering!"

"Remembering what, that you got me trashed by a Zorin? Please."

"But I got you through the world robattle championships!"

"Like hell you could do that! Someone as weak as yoself can't do nothing."

"What! But I'm your medafighter, how am I weak?"

"You, my medafighter, please, I'm my own medafighter." The two were arguing even worse than ever since Metabee lost most of his memories. They didn't even seem to care that Metabee nearly got creamed by a Windsail, which isn't even designed for fighting. Miss Nae just looked on smiling as Metabee and Ikki got into a fist fight, which wasn't fair because Metabee virtually had permanent brass knuckles, or I guess Medabot Alloy knuckles.

_Boys will be boys. It looks like Metabee hasn't forgotten his robattle spirit too. But what worries me is that medal. They should have listened to Dr. Aki when he said they shouldn't use the medaforce. Because know…_

Metabee's beetle medal had degenerated. It used to show a picture of a Beetle in flight. When Ikki first got it, it was a larva, looking suspiciously like a caterpillar. Now it did something impossible. It went down to an egg stage, looking exactly like a chicken egg with the new, blue medalias that replaced the cracked one in the middle.

"Metabee," Miss Nae started. "Your memories should come back over time if you keep that headband on you every day. It can be anywhere on you. Now Ikki, don't tell Metabee to use the medaforce until this new medawatch says you can." Miss Nae handed Ikki a grey medawatch. "This was designed by Dr. Aki to enable all medabots to use the medaforce. It never worked but it did let you see if your medabot was ready to use a medaforce attack. And since Metabee never knew how to use the other medaforces, this watch also lets you see when you're ready for the others. At the press of a button Metabee will swap to a different type medaforce. There are three different types of medaforce to master. Some people are rumored to have mastered four kinds. You will usually get each medaforce as you medal changes. Your normal one comes when Metabee's medal changes into a cocoon. Just keep training from there. These watches should go on sale next month so you're getting a head start!" It didn't look like they were paying any attention but Miss Nae knew that she could count on Metabee to have heard it. He lost some of his rare medal characteristics like sensitivity to his medal as well as his memory. He should have been slightly less touched in the head as a result.

. . .

Ikki and Metabee were walking on the streets. Ikki was up in front with Metabee lagging behind lazily tossing one foot in front of the other with his hands behind his head. Ikki was coaching him the whole way.

"… Sumilidon is known for his lightning fast reflexes. His shadow sword technique can cut you to pieces and moves way faster than you can imagine. However afterwards he's vulnerable so your best bet is to predict his moves and attack after he uses it. Samantha's Peppercat is different though…" In perfect timing the Screws appeared around the corner.

"**Hey, Ikki! I can't believe you would ignore your mentor like that!" **_Uh oh… _Ikki thought. What was it now? **"I try to comfort you over the loss of your medabot and you just abandon me like that! With all those Select corps! **If they weren't trying to arrest that kid there was no way I was escaping!"

"The select corps robattled the kid?" Ikki straightened up.

"Yeah. That guy thought he could take them on. He transported this big blue KWG type medabot, Tyrell beetle. I have to admit, he did well to be able to square up to an Attack-Tyranno but we all knew he was screwed to start with. But that's not important! It's payback time!" Ikki tried going around her just to find two other members of the Screws blocking the path.

"Ikki, what do I do?" Metabee looked up to him confused. Ikki jumped back as if he had been stung by a bee

"Metabee, what are you saying? You can't ask me what to do, Metabee always KNOWS what to do," Ikki yelled. "We robattle all three of them. Metabee's eyes flashed green momentarily and his headband shined in the sun. "All right Samantha, you want to take on a defenseless medabot…"

"What?" Metabee interjected.

"…Who can't even remember how to robattle…"

"Hey!"

"Then fine! But just know he's not alone! You guys are pretty slow if you didn't even notice my second medawatch!" The Screws looked in disbelief at Ikki's opposite arm which had a dark purple medawatch.

_Thank you Miss Nae _Ikki thought as he thought back to Dr. Aki's lab…

"Ikki, I know Metabee isn't feeling great," Miss Nae started. "But with the last battle he was in he ended up summoning the medaforce because Windsail proved to be equal to him."

"Yeah, that's Metabee for you! Doesn't like to lose," Ikki said with a smile on his face.

"Well, the medabots I used were prototypes to the elemental series. They all look and act like their element and they transform as well. Windsail was the weakest of all the elementals that were made."

"What? That was the weakest?"

"Yes, her parts aren't designed for attacking and she can't change to combat parts. She is just incredibly strong willed. I think that she has a rare medal because of her strength and because everyone she meets instantly gets into a fight with her. She's like a female Metabee"

"That wouldn't be good if they were in the same room together for a long time," Ikki thought as images of destroyed medaparts and a dead Metabee flashed through his mind.

"Exactly. That's why I'm letting you keep her."

"What? Ikki yelled. He knew that Metabee would hate him if he told him that.

"Well, maybe Metabee will get some of his old personality back around someone just like him. And since he can't use medaforce with a leak in his medal, she might be able to share her soul power the way you two sometimes do so that when they fight together, Metabee can use medaforce. I'll just modify her parts after Saldron's so that she can fight better. Her name might register differently as a result."

"Well…"

Ikki stood there, the Screws where outside the school, transporting there medabots. Ikki smiled. "I was gonna find someone worthwhile but you asked for it. You better kiss your bots goodbye! Transport, Windstorm!" Metabee's eyes widened as he realized who this was, even before he could see her. Sparks crackled as the medabot materialized. Spyke and Sloan backed off a little bit and their medabots did to. But Samantha just smiled at the thought of a challenge. The new and improved Windsail emerged from it all. Entering with true style as a tornado swirled around her. She simply said this:

"Guy's you know that I rock!" And for a second all of Metabee's memories flashed through his head. But even then, he just couldn't disagree.


	4. Tag Team Heroes

Chapter 4: Tag Team Heroes!

"Guy's you know that I rock," Where the words Windstorm uttered as soon as her medal was placed in her back. Metabee looked in wonder as this simple action brought all of his memories back for half a second. But after that there was no more awe coming from him.

"Hey! What gives? Stealing the spotlight like you're some kind of Grandmaster," Metabee was jumping around angrily making a ruckus.

"Shut up! You're ruining my awesome entrance!"

"I've seen anime cooler than you!"

"Do I see you looking this awesome tin head?" The upgraded Windstorm obviously had a bit of 'tweaking'. She was cream coloured with blue and red lines running around her arms and body. Her legs had knives attached to the sides and the tips were splotched with red paint as if they were blood stained. There was a tattoo of a heart on her left thigh and her metal hair was black with red stripes. It seemed to actually flow with the wind as if it was actual hair. There were thin strands of metal for each hair so even though it was metal it would be light weight and move like real hair. Her normally red eyes were instead a deep purple that could have medabots losing themselves inside. Her shoulders looked like they had thick green knives attached to them. She had a thick green tail.

The Screws blinked twice without speaking. After four seconds of silence the Screws all burst out laughing at the sight of Windstorm. Ikki looked at them confused.

"What's so funny?" Ikki asked. Windstorm's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Yeah you jokers! What do _you _find funny about this," Windstorm's arms transformed to reveal an arsenal of daggers, swords, shurikens and bladed weapons of all kinds. The Screws kept laughing all the harder. Spyke managed to garble out a few words in between fits of laughter.

"It's… it's… it's… it's a… Windsail hahaha! They… can't do… anything but… fly hahahaha!" Sloan spoke up.

"They don't fight, aren't good at flying, can't transform into anything useful and they're for _girls!_" Samantha looked at Sloan dangerously at that comment but just couldn't keep in her laughter and fell down laughing as well.

"I should be mad, haha, but he's right! I wouldn't even use it! Once a little girl was robattling with one, she had a rare medal, she made it transform and it turned into something that shuts down medaforce, and deactivated its only strong attack hahahahaha!"

"And then," Sloan carried on. "And then… she told it to use the medaforce anyway, and it tried and all of its parts ended up exploding blowing itself to pieces hahahahaha!" Windstorm was getting angrier with each passing second and by the time Sloan finished, she was flailing her arms madly around her trying to get everyone to look at her in awe again.

"You think you can take me on, then hurry up and robattle!"

"Yeah let's get Meta-busy," Metabee said joining in again.

"Yeah, let's do this, robattle style!" Ikki finished off crossing his arms over each other holding his watches up to his face.

"Then it's agreed!" Mr Referee was seen running full speed towards the group, blue in the face. "Just… as soon… as I… get… my… breathe… gasp," Mr Referee collapsed in front of the group huffing and puffing as his lungs screamed for oxygen. After about thirty seconds he got up. "Boy, people sure are robattling a lot lately. I just came from the thirteenth one. Unlucky number. Medafighters ready?" Medawatches beeped with information.

_**Peppercat: Medabot Corporation**_

_**Medafighter: Samantha**_

_**Specialty: High speed thunder strikes**_

_**Signature: Lightning jump**_

_**Totalizer: Medabot Corporation**_

_**Medafighter: Sloan**_

_**Specialty: All or nothing attacks**_

_**Signature: Tyranno laser**_

_**Krosserdog: Medabot Corporation**_

_**Medafighter: Spyke**_

_**Specialty: Hand to hand combat**_

_**Signature: Rifle tactics**_

_**Metabee: Medabot Corporation**_

_**Medafighter: Ikki**_

_**Specialty: Seeker missiles**_

_**Signature: Demolition mode**_

_**Windstorm: Medabot Corporation**_

_**Medafighter: Ikki**_

_**Specialty: Interrupt skill**_

_**Signature: Close quarters combat (CQC)**_

"Medabots, robattle!"

"Metabee, use your sub machinegun on Totalizer!" Metabee fired rounds of laser canon bullets to Totalizers bulky frame. Totalizer shook slightly with each impact but otherwise, no damage was dealt. Windstorm looked at Ikki angrily.

"Hey what are you doing? You can't touch him! Go for Peppercat!"

"Peppercat is too fast for Metabee so I'm not yet ready for her. Totalizer is an easy target but if you ignore him and he gets close to you, his Tyranno laser will blow you to pieces." Spyke smiled.

"Get them while they're arguing Krosserdog!" Krosserdog charged at Windstorm and shot her with both canons, from point blank so as not to miss. While Windsail was transforming her parts into shields to protect herself, Peppercat came right behind her with an electric paw to the small part of her back.

**Head-to-torso part 20% damage.**

"Metabee, shoot Peppercat off with your rifle!" Metabee Shot Peppercat five times before she let go then turned towards Krosserdog and fired his Missiles at him. Krosserdog jumped back to dodge the blast, just to land on Totalizer. Because Metabee's missiles were homing, they followed Krosserdog and exploded on both medabots.

"Spyke, what are you doing?" Samantha screamed at him as he shook with fear.

"Sorry boss, Krosserdog's trying his best. Give him a break," Spyke pleaded.

"I'll give him a broken chassis if you act like that!" Ikki took the opportunity.

"Metabee, Windstorm, double team!"

"Ok gotcha," Windstorm said as he rocketed towards Peppercat.

"Yeah-yeah!" Metabee started shooting Peppercat with his machinegun. Peppercat ran quickly around all the bullets effortlessly and with grace. Windsail shot towards Peppercat just to have her hop over Windstorm's back. Windsail got shot up by Metabee's friendly fire and crashed down in a fit of sparks. She rolled over in the dirt and slammed painfully into the school wall. She got up angrily with rocks in her metal hair strands.

"Oi! Watch where you're aiming you tin can!"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't see with your big head blocking the way."

"You think you're funny don't you? Let's see if you're laughing when I shove your shower nozzles up your…" Metabee trooped over to Windstorm with his machinegun held out in front of him. Windstorm matched it with Rokusho's sword arm and a wakizashi. Ikki looked on in disbelief at their stupidity.

"Hey you two, quit it!" But the two medabots ignored him completely. The Screws gang snickered and Samantha was looking triumphant with her whole team getting back up again.

"Hey, He can't even control his medabot! He's even worse than when he first started robattling! Hey Ikki, have you forgotten everything I taught you?"

"You didn't teach me anything," Ikki snarled.

"Well, are you ready to give up?"

"Not a chance," Ikki said, determined not to lose.

_Come on, I have to think of some way to snap them out of it. Windstorm isn't using any of her new techniques and Metabee is fighting like a first timer. _Ikki finally got an idea.

"Hey you two, I'm forfeiting the match!"

"WHAT?" Both medabots said turning towards Ikki like he had gone crazy. They didn't even notice Totalizer's Tyranno laser pass over their heads.

"Well you aren't taking this robattle seriously. With the way you two are bickering, it's obvious that we're going to lose. I might as well pack in the tower since none of you two have any real power.

"You doubt my skill," Windstorm said with menace.

"Yeah, and Metabee don't like that," Metabee joined in, narrowing his eyes.

"Well then stop bickering and listen to me! You two just can't behave can you? You have to learn to get along! You've got to accept your strengths and weaknesses and know your weaknesses. You two are gonna be partners for a long time, maybe even forever! So you have to get through everything together, the good and the bad. Metabee can't remember anymore but we've been through the edge of reality and back together. So why you can't do that again Metabee and why you can't accept him as himself is beyond reason! You can hate each other for all I care, but now we have to win!" Metabee shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot and Windstorm looked away, shame filling her face. After an awkward silence they saw Peppercat charging at them and knew there was no choice in the matter.

"Ok Ikki, what should we do?" Metabee asked. Ikki explained the plan as they were getting shot by Krosserdog. "WHAT?" Metabee screamed before Peppercat appeared before them sending her electric paws towards their heads. They ducked just in time as Peppercat's paws got jammed in the wall. Metabee ran away resigned to the plan. He looked at Windstorm who was flying alongside him. She nodded to him with a triumphant smile. Metabee transformed into action mode, wheels folding out from his feet and his shoulder extensions attaching themselves to his arm. The extensions probably had wheels hidden inside them. Windstorm flew down on top of Metabee. Her right arm turned into a slender arm with a white sleeve. It was holding a katana. Her left arm turned pink and had a giant wristwatch on it. It was holding on to Metabee's head canons. Metabee swerved left towards Krosserdog who was blindly shooting in Metabee's general direction, but never once getting a hit. Windstorm held her sword out to the right side of Metabee. Metabee drove right past Krosserdog and Windstorm slashed Krosserdog's waist as they did so. The sound of metal scraping metal was heard as the sword cut right through. Oil spurted out and a spark from a wire set it and Krosserdog on fire. Krosserdog's medal ejected and his body fell limply to the ground burning.

"Aaaaaa! Krosserdog!" Spyke sprinted towards his burning medabot. Luckily for him, Krosserdog didn't have that much fuel and a medabots body cuts off burning oil from the rest of the supply so he doesn't explode. Metabee turned towards Totalizer.

"Totalizer, use your mega laser," Sloan yelled into the watch. Totalizer aimed a gigantic laser arm at the two medabots. He fired a bright blue beam. Windstorm tossed Metabee into the air even though Metabee yelled in protest and just barely dodged the laser. She flew at full speed towards Totalizer and as soon as she reached him she did a triple front flip and landed one of her painful leg spikes into Totalizer's head. Sparks flew around and for two seconds they remained frozen like that before Windstorm finally let him go. Totalizer went limp but stayed standing because of his wide roller tank legs. His tortoise medal ejected. Windstorm straightened up.

"Now we're in motion," She said with a 'smile,' on her face plate. Just then Metabee landed antennae first into the ground and got stuck there.

**Head part 70% damage. Right canon offline**

"Hey! What are you trying to do? You could at least catch me if you're gonna throw me around!" Metabee looked ridiculous upside down in the ground. Ikki tried hard to stifle his laughter and Samantha was rolling on the floor with laughter. Windstorm giggled slightly before putting on a fake serious expression.

"Well it could have been a lot worse if you got hit," Windstorm pointed out as she pulled him from the ground. Metabee transformed and Windstorm stood on him again as if he was a surfboard. They charged towards Peppercat like this. Metabee kept grumbling something about being stood on and Windstorm seemed to be enjoying every bit of it.

"Hey Metabee, I've got an idea, but I'll need you to be ready to go three times as fast." Metabee turned his head 180 degrees to look up at Windstorm.

"Alright, what is it?"

"Super speed!"

"Come again?" Windstorm's giant wristwatch glowed purple and suddenly Metabee zoomed towards Peppercat like a rocket. They made it towards with Metabee glowing purple. Windstorm held out her arm again to slice Peppercat up. Samantha smiled knowing what would happen. Peppercat ducked at just the last second and grabbed Metabee's tire with a lightning filled paw. Her other paw went up to Windstorm's arm. Metabee's tire exploded sending them veering off course until he flipped over denting every part in his body. Windstorm flew off of Metabee into the dirt, electricity coursing through her body.

**Metabee all parts 80% damage. Windstorm all parts 82% damage. Transform offline.**

Metabee got up rubbing his head. Windstorm stood on shaky legs unable to fly anymore. Ikki looked at Peppercat thinking.

_Ok, so she's too fast, even for action mode. It looks like Metabee's not as quick as he used to be even with Windstorms help. So I've got an idea._

"Windstorm, CQC!" Windstorm's eyes flashed momentarily.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Windstorm flew over to Peppercat who was charging at her. Samantha yelled out orders into her medawatch.

"Peppercat, lightning jump!" Peppercat ran forward and leaped into the air, her paw aimed at Windstorm. Windstorm dodged her head to the side and tripped Peppercat in mid-air. She launched into the air and brought her heel down on Peppercat. Peppercat rolled off to the side at the last moment and sent an electric paw to Windstorms face. Windstorm stopped the paw with her hands but got them shocked in the process. Her arms turned grey as they shut down but Windstorm ignored it completely jumping into the air and attacking Peppercat with a flurry of spin kicks, the blade slashing through the metal. Peppercat's arms exploded in a fit of sparks as the blades cut through them. Metabee was busy changing into demolition mode from the side-lines. The ammo pack appeared on Metabee's back and all his parts were reinforced with extra armour. Peppercat had her hands full just fending off Windstorm and didn't notice Metabee aiming his canon at her. Samantha couldn't think of a way to avoid the attack anyway without Peppercat getting her head chopped to pieces. Metabee charged to full power. Ikki smiled triumphantly knowing that Peppercat was finished.

"You're toast Samantha!" Metabee aimed at Peppercat. Windstorm cut Peppercat's leg and jumped out of the way as Peppercat hit the floor. Pepper cat looked pleadingly at Metabee's canon.

"It's time to kiss your bot goodbye!" Metabee screamed. Metabee fired a large blue energy ball, the recoil knocking him back two metres. Peppercat was practically eaten by the blast. It went right through her, not even exploding on impact. It flew straight on scorching Peppercat and forcing her to eject her medal. The blast flew on into the sky, exploding like a firework up with the clouds.

"Functions ceased! The winners are, Metabee and Windstorm!" Ikki sighed and slumped down on the floor

"Man, that was too close," Ikki said as a smile touched his face. Metabee jumped up out of his armour and yelled with joy. Windstorm flew into the sky with an invisible smile on her face. She flew down and looked at Metabee as the high of battle died down. They stared at each other in the awkward silence for a few seconds. Metabee rubbed the back of his head.

"You are kind of strong to keep up with that medabot. I can just remember her always being way faster than me," Metabee said grudgingly.

"Yeah, and you're not half bad yourself. That canon would have finished me any day." It seemed like there was more to say but they just ended it with a fist pound. Samantha was picking her medabot up off the ground. The Screws gang turned towards Ikki.

"We'll get you for this!" They said together before running off. Ikki looked at them running like the cowards they were.

"They'll never change will they? Hey Metabee, get over here!" Metabee turned towards Ikki and jogged over to him. Windstorm floated after them. "Man, those guys completely took us off track! We were meant to go to Koji's house. I wonder if Karin is better yet. I hope so, because I really miss her."

"Karin? Who's that?" Metabee asked dumbly. Ikki face planted into the floor as if saying _you can't be serious_.

"What? You don't remember Karin? She was only the prettiest girl you'll ever see! She had red pigtails and she usually wore a pink shirt with a white skirt. She's pretty pale though. She's usually hanging with Koji. They go way back." Metabee looked at Ikki puzzled.

"Nope. I can't remember a thing. Although I do remember a nurse medabot. But not much. But that cat medabot, Peppercat, her speed reminded me of this Koji guy's medabot. Sumilidon. I remember him perfectly. Lightning fast, never seen one braver. That dude would be my hero if I wasn't stronger than him." Ikki walked on closely followed by Metabee and Windstorm.

. . .

"Wow, this place is huge," Ikki said awestruck at the size of Koji's home. The gate was silver with threads of silver running through it. The wall was also covered in silver with golden stripes running through it. The house itself was a large Victorian building with a large domed roof. There was a sword and shield hanging at the top of the front door. Ikki took a deep breath and pushed the button that looked like a door bell. The normal ding-dong of door bells was heard followed by very posh music. Swan Lake was played first. Ikki tapped his foot patiently. Windstorm transformed her arm into a watch and checked the time. Ikki walked around patiently. Finally a voice that could only belong to a butler was heard over the intercom.

"_**Yes? Address yourselves."**_

"Um, this is Ikki Tenryou, I'm looking for a…"

"_**He's not here."**_

"Wha? But I haven't even said who I was…"

"_**Be gone you groundling. The master does not wish to grace you with his presence!"**_

"No I'm looking for Koji!" But the intercom was already switched off. Metabee's fake eyes twitched. Windstorm held her head in annoyance.

"They're not serious," Metabee said. Windstorm began to walk away. "Hey where are you going? Don't tell me they scared you away!"

"Ha!" Windstorm laughed. "Please, they can't scare me! I'm just preparing for this!" Windstorms arms morphed into red ones with rounded shoulder pads. "Stretch punch!" She screamed as her arms stretched towards the gate at unbelievable speeds. They rushed past Ikki's face, the wind nearly knocking him over as it passed. They collided with the gate with a ringing noise like someone hitting a hollow pipe and Windstorms whole body vibrated from the impact, but the gate stayed strong. The intercom turned on again.

"_**Don't say you weren't warned peasant!" **_The gate opened up to reveal a squad of Roadrunners. They were closely followed by white pterodactyl looking medabots.

**Air-Ptera: Select corps**

**Medafighter: Butler**

**Specialty: Seek and destroy**

**Signature: High speed dive**

"Come on, bring it! I can take em," Metabee yelled aiming his machinegun at them

"No, you can't," Ikki said grabbing Metabee's horns. "RUN AWAY!" Ikki ran as fast as an angry Metabee would allow him. Windstorm quickly launched off of the ground and darted after Ikki.

"Ok, new plan," Ikki said speaking to his medabots.

"We knock all of them!" Metabee exclaimed polishing his rifle gun.

"No they'll just scrap you and use your parts as a can opener," Ikki said.

"Exactly tin can, leave all the killing to the real assassin here," Windstorm interrupted. "You can just go sell your parts on eBay or something like that.

"So you can fight a little pussycat and you suddenly think you're the best. Who was the guy who blew you _and _your friends to pieces? Uh, me. So you can shine my shoes now."

"You can't even afford to buy slippers you bootlegged medabot!"

"Where'd you recycle your parts from? A Model T Ford?"

"At least I'm not related to a Volkswagen beetle!" Ikki looked at the two exasperated.

"Stop fighting you two," Ikki said separating the both of them

"You stay out of this!" They both yelled angrily at Ikki, and then resumed dissing each other.

"Yo mama's so fat, when she wears yellow, people think she's the sun!" Metabee started off the dissing.

"Your mama's so broke, when she went to a store that said, 'everything comes free,' she asked if there was anything cheaper."

"You call that a dis?" Ikki interrupted getting into the swing of things. "Well both your mama's are so fat, that when they jumped for joy, they broke it!"

"Ooo," Metabee said. "You got shutdown Windstorm.

"Genius, he dissed you too! Your mama's so fat, she wears a hoola hoop to hold up her dress!"

"Yo mama's so skinny," Metabee started, targeting Ikki this time. "That when taking a shower, she has to run around catching the water to get wet."

"Both your mamas are so hairy," Windstorm started. "That when talking to each other, all they speak is wookie!" A group of teenagers passing by all went "Ooohhh shutdown, shutdown!"

"Hey, you got that from a movie!" Metabee yelled.

"So? All your disses have been used on MTV before so stuff it!"

"Lies! Ikki's disses are from MTV, mine are all original."

"Cough, cough," Ikki said sarcastically as if trying to say _such lies_. "Well then your mama's so huge…" They kept dissing each other like that for the next ten minutes before Ikki remembered they were trying to raid Koji's house. And also because some kid came and shut them all down. "Alright guys, my plan is to sneak around the house and enter like complete ninja's, of course avoiding the hidden cameras and lasers and the more than lethal poison darts and bear traps.

"How do you suggest we do that?" Windstorm asked impatiently.

"I can't remember after all the dissing." The two medabots slapped their foreheads at the stupidity of their medafighter.

"That's it, time for demolition mode." Metabee went down on four legs as he transported all the parts he needed. The ammunition appeared on his back along with a pair of white support legs that looked suspiciously like a bugs legs. His face got covered up by a red visor. The extra canon appeared on top of his head and pointed towards the gate.

"Hey Metabee, you don't need to…"

"We need that gate demolished right? Well demolition mode does just that!"

"Oi tin can! Listen to the boss for once!"

"Booyah! Metabee fired his destructive medablast at the silver gate. The gate exploded into tiny fragments of gold and silver. "All right that's what I'm talking about," Metabee celebrated as he transformed back to normal.

"You didn't have to do that because I remembered the plan," Ikki said with an embarrassed look on his face. Metabee looked at him like he wanted to kill him and Windstorm just shook her head sadly. The Air-Ptera's charged out of the building closely followed by Roadrunners. An Attack-Tyranno led the pack. He had the Japanese flag painted on her chest.

"Give up now and leave these premises," the Attack Tyranno barked. He was blue with yellow hammers attached to his hands. They weren't ordinary hammers but they were double sided like a mallet. He had a red visor and he had a Tyrannosaurus helmet with his face where the mouth was opened wide. Ikki crossed his medawatches over, preparing for a massive robattle.

"Metabee, action mode! Windstorm, change to support parts." Metabee transformed and drove towards the group of medabots. Windstorm's right arm morphed into a chameleon arm and she suddenly disappeared. Whatever her right arm was, no one saw it. But they did see Metabee becoming way faster as he bowled over opponents. Suddenly, all the medabots except Attack-Tyranno took to the skies before Metabee could get them. Windstorm appeared again as her parts changed back to normal so that she could fly easily. However she looked a bit blurred so that she was harder to hit. It was an aftereffect from the chameleon arm. She took to the skies as well.

"We'll prove right here who the queen of the skies!" She charged at a Roadrunner just to be barraged by an onslaught of Air-Ptera's. They ripped Windstorm to pieces with their sharpened wings. She was tossed around from medabot to medabot like a kite in a hurricane. Metabee was no better. He charged around Attack-Tyranno to try and make him dizzy. The enemy was unfazed. He walked slowly to the edge of the Metabee tornado being formed and stuck his hammer into the wall. Metabee slammed face first into the fist. He transformed back to normal and jumped back from the fist. All the Roadrunners dived from the sky onto Metabee, pecking at him with metal beaks. Ikki knew he had lost when Windstorm fell from the skies onto a bear trap. Metabee's arm parts disengaged from all the abuse, leaving nothing but his tin-pet skeleton. Ikki though it was all over.

"Shadow sword, go!" A yellow flash ripped through the air and all the medabots on Metabee suddenly split in half. Another cut and Windstorm's assailants all flew off of her. Attack-Tyranno looked around frantically for the attacker. Suddenly, it was right in front of him. A yellow medabot with two claws on his right arm and a massive hammer with bolts in it on the left. He looked like he was a true warrior. An upside down triangle was on his forehead. The medabot brought his left arm up and punched Attack-Tyranno''s face, cracking his visor. All at once, the enemy medabots ejected their medals. The sound of cascading medals barraged everyone's ears like a metallic waterfall. Koji Karakuchi stepped forward. He had silky black hair flowing down his head just below his chin. He had purple eyes and a face that girls seemed to fall for. He had a yellow shirt and was wearing blue shorts. He had a snobbish look on his face that said _all of you are beneath me_.

"Is this how you treat guests? Father would never allow this behaviour to go unpunished! How much do you like your wages as they are?" Koji walked over to his yellow medabot.

"Are you OK Exor?"


	5. Unleash The Shadow Sword!

Chapter 5: Unleash the Shadow Sword!

Ikki stared in disbelief at the wreckage before him. At least 50 medabots strewn before him, top class each and every one of them. All of them were destroyed in an instant without so much as a sweat breaking. Ikki tried to order his thoughts about what just happened.

_Windstorm fell from the skies onto a bear trap. Metabee's arm parts disengaged from all the abuse, leaving nothing but his tin-pet skeleton. Ikki though it was all over._

_"Shadow sword, go!" A yellow flash ripped through the air and all the medabots on Metabee suddenly split in half. Another cut and Windstorm's assailants all flew off of her. Attack-Tyranno looked around frantically for the attacker. Suddenly, it was right in front of him. It was a yellow medabot with two claws on his right arm and a massive hammer with bolts in it on the left. The medabot brought his left arm up and punched Attack-Tyranno''s face, cracking his visor. All at once, the enemy medabots ejected their medals. The sound of cascading medals barraged everyone's ears like a metallic waterfall. Koji Karakuchi stepped forward. "Is this how you treat guests? Father would never allow this behaviour to go unpunished! How much do you like your wages as they are?" Koji walked over to his yellow medabot._

_"Are you OK Exor?"_

Metabee looked on with a distant look in his artificial eyes. They had changed to a bright purple. Windstorm gritted her teeth at the sight of Exor. Ikki looked towards Koji for answers but none were given. Windstorm looked up at Ikki.

"There aren't many Kilobots with human emotions are there," she said as more of a statement than a question.

"No. Only big companies can afford neo-ex medals and they sold out the day they were put on market. There can only be another emotionless kilobot in there as those are the only ones sold."

"But didn't the boss shut down the company?"

"Yeah but all the smaller organizations still produce them. A normal medal can't be in there either because any other medal would go crazy in a medabot like that. It sends pain directly to the medal. It's no problem for an ex-medal which has no emotion but Sumilidon would go nuts."

"Sumilidon..." Metabee said softly to himself. Ikki turned towards Metabee who was faintly glowing green. "He got rid of Sumilidon for a kilobot..." Koji turned from cleaning off the dust from the kilobot, having heard nothing of the conversation. A slight smile spread across his face.

"Ikki, long time no see. Looks like Metabee got an upgrade. I'm surprised you could even afford those. Why don't you step inside?" Metabee ignored Koji and slowly walked towards the Exor. Ikki stood up and stared hard at Koji, as if hoping the daggers in his eyes would actually stab through Koji. Koji shifted uncomfortably. "Yo, are you ok man? Why are you staring at me like that? It's freaking me out." Metabee slowly walked over to Sumilidon. After five seconds he erupted in a flare of green light. Ikki wasn't in any mental condition to stop as even he was flaring in rage. Koji visibly paled for a split second before his face was hidden beneath a blank emotionless mask, staying composed even as Metabee started speaking.

"You seriously got rid of Sumilidon for that?" His voice was ice cold and dripping with malice. Koji remained calm, although a bead of sweat was seen dropping down the side of his head. "You replaced Sumilidon with an emotionless kilobot who can't even feel the thrill of battle. Your robattle partner with a soul like no other. You're not a medafighter, you're a meda-flop, a meda-failure," Metabee snarled using the same line he told Ikki long ago as the memory returned to him. The energy around Metabee waxed and waned with the pitch of his voice. An unearthly wind started howling through the trees, changing from a tickling, threatening breeze to a howling tempest, and back to a breeze in a matter of seconds. The wind would occasionally snap at his words, twisting them to sound otherworldly and alien. Ikki stepped forward to be equal to Metabee.

"I can't believe you Koji, you're not the same medafighter who left town with Karin. You're not even a medafighter anymore to replace Sumilidon. You were lucky to find such a powerful medabot, and such a close friend..." Metabee's green energy flared up brighter than ever. In unison they spoke.

"We will never forgive you!" Trees flew back. Windstorm stepped back, fear filling her medal. She tried flying away but something stopped her. Her feat stayed firmly rooted to the ground. She was stuck, witnessing as Koji turned whiter than a sheet of paper. He kept shouting something but the tempest tore the words from his mouth before he could speak them. Occasionally she heard small snatches of words such as "He's not... Listen to... Sumili..." She didn't care. She was begging her parts to respond but she just wouldn't budge.

_No way! Metabee's not ready for the medaforce yet! He'll die like that! I promised Miss Nae I'd look after him but all I'm doing is watching the two fools. Idiots! _She panicked for a while longer and looked at the kilobot. Even he appeared to be jumping around shouting something. _No way _she thought. _Kilobots don't have emotions. Or any kind of reasonable thought. He can't be unless..._ Finally hardening her resolve to save Metabee, She took to the skies, being buffeted at every corner. She flew past over Ikki's head and turned to faced Metabee. Metabee's rage shifted towards her direction and the storm quickly followed his gaze.

"Get out of here! You're gonna die," Metabee screamed at her.

"Windstorm, move before I force you," Ikki said plainly.

"No!" Windstorm cried out into the wind, enhancing her voice like a loudspeaker so that it would go through the storm, and just for good measure, she also spoke through Ikki's medawatch. "Metabee, you might be weak and annoying and act like some kind of bratty little brother, but I promised the boss to look after you. And when I make a promise to the boss, it's more than worth my life!" Windstorm began to glow bright purple. She couldn't use medaforce, but she learnt a trick from Miss Nae that made her look like she was charging it. Hopefully it would surprise Metabee enough for him to let his gaurd down. Metabee however didn't flinch. He just charged it up brighter than ever. Windstorm didn't wait for him to finish charging it up. She charged straight towards Metabee, her right arm morphing into her favourite katana. Her left arm moulded like a very liquid jelly until it rested as a thin purple arm with white rings going around it. She brought her left arm back and punched Metabee square in the chest with it. Metabee didn't seem to feel it. He twisted around, using Windstorm's own momentum to flip her over, tossing her into a nearby tree. She crumpled to the floor, her vision disoriented. Before she could recover, Metabee began firing round after round of bullets into her already damaged frame. She cried out in agony every time a bullet hit one of her scratches from the Air Pteras. She felt her vision flicker as she slowly shut down. Her pain sensors shut down completely, blocking out all the pain she was feeling. She let her eyes shut off slowly.

"Sumilidon, shadow sword!" A yellow flash tore through the air before the kilobot appeared in front of Windstorm, deflecting every bullet with his sword arm. He risked a glance behind him at Windstorm while Metabee reloaded.

"Don't worry, you're safe now. Just rest."

"So you really aren't a kilobot," Windstorm said weakly.

"No. It's the same Sumilidon. I just wish Metabee would listen as well." Koji's previous discomfort disappeared and a smug grin spread across his face.

"Sumilidon, get up close past Metabee. There is no way you can touch him while the medaforce is active. Grab Ikki's medawatch and smash it. From then you will have two seconds to get to Metabee because he'll lose focus seeing the watch break, but any longer than that and he'll go ballistic!" Sumilidon, or Exor, sprinted forward into the eye of the storm, Metabee. He charged headlong into it before being assaulted by a hail of bullets. "Sumilidon, cut past it, extreme shadow sword!" Sumilidon began glowing bright green.

"Prepare yourself Metabee, medaforce!" An enormous blast ripped through the air as Similidon released the attack. The sheer size of the attack dwarfed even the Zorin's attack from that day, tossing up dirt as it made its way towards Metabee. It travelled until it was just inches away from Metabee's face before vanishing in the wind as suddenly as it appeared. But Sumilidon was already gone. He appeared in front of Ikki like a ghost out of a nightmare, snatching the medawatch from Ikki's wrist. Ikki fell over backwards, his face landing a millimetre away from a thin trip wire. Metabee's concentration faltered for a fraction of a second and the raging cyclone around him drifted away. Sumilidon disappeared into the shadows caused from the buildings. Metabee flared up again.

"Come out you stupid junkbot! I'll take you all on..." Metabee froze up completely as to claws were protruding through his stomache. His eyes grayed over and the storm stopped completely. The claws were yanked out of Metabee's back as he fell to the floor. Ikki got up from the ground to see Metabee. He stared at the medawatch he still had.

Head medapart 80% damage. Torso damage.

Leg medapart 50% damage.

Sumilidon stood in front of Metabee.

"I'M NOT A KILOBOT!" He screamed at him.

"Oh, really? My bad..."

. . .

They all stood inside Koji's bedroom. For someone so rich, he had a pretty plain looking room. It was pretty simple, the walls had pictures of medabots of all kinds, but was dominated by the same series as Sumilidon, both kilobot and medabot. But you definitely could see wealth when you saw the bed. The bed was probably the length of Karen's signature pink limousine and on the opposite side was a plasma screen T.V. Next to the T.V set was a large glass container with Sumilidon's old body inside. There were dents and scratches all over the hammer fist and one of the claws were missing but otherwise, it looked as if it was cared for and polished every single day.

"Whoa, check out the T.V," Metabee said, staring at the T.V like a peice of steak. "Every serious crib has a plasma screen. Guaranteed!"

"Not every mansion, tin-can," Windstorm said, annoyed at how childish Metabee was acting. "It's like you've never seen a T.V before!"

"Yea every mansion has a plasma! Watch teen cribs some time."

"Genius, not every crib has a plasma screen," Windstorm cut in.

"Straight up every crib has a plasma!"

"So you wanna bet right?"

"That's right!"

"Ok, if the next fifty cribs have plasma screens, then I give you all my medaparts. But if even _one _has no plasma, then I can keep you're medal, and you'll be my medabot."

"No way! I can't use girl medaparts and I won't be your slave!"

"What genius, you're afraid you'll lose?"

"Not a chance! If I win, you give me cash. If you win, I give you cash. Deal?"

"Deal!"

"But you know, I'm still stronger than you by far."

"What? Just try me tin-can and we'll see who rocks..."

Ikki completely ignored them and faced Koji.

"Hey Koji, It's been a long time since we last met, right?" Koji went over to the massive bed and sat down while Ikki kept talking next to the jar containing Sumilidon's body. "But why are you here anyways? Don't you and Karen normally only come on holidays?

"Yeah, It's pretty complicated. I'll explain it all later. But that's not what you came to ask, is it?" Ikki faked an offended look.

"What, you don't even trust your friends to come and say hi?"

"Please, if you were saying hi, then you wouldn't have tried sneaking in or breaking down the gate. Spit it out!" Ikki looked at his toes as if ashamed to say what he needed said.

"Ok. This is kinda weird asking someone weaker than me for advice..."

"Weaker?" Koji got up a bit and brought his medawatch up to his face as if preparing for a robattle. Ikki ignored him and continued.

"But I met this weird medafighter the other day. He had a super strong KWG type medabot that wiped the floor with everyone it met. We robattled him and he completely destroyed us. He nearly destroyed Metabee's medal. His medal degenerated to an egg level and he can't even use the medaforce anymore.

"What? First, that can even happen? Second, Metabee scared me half to death back there and yet he couldn't even use the medaforce?" Ikki looked to the ground, ashamed at having tricked his friend like that.

"Well we thought if we could scare you just enough... Anyway, he beat us, but we almost beat him. Whenever we fought he was always way faster than Metabee and we couldn't touch him. Whenever we did get close enough to damage him, he just defended with an ability his parts shouldn't have. He could heal, create shields, lay turrets, increase his speed, pretty much everything which other types could do. By the time we actually did harm him, we were already well spent.

"A good thing though, was that during it all, I finally figured out how to beat him."

"Well, what is it?"

"I need," Ikki hesitated. Could he really do it? After two seconds of indecision, he hardened his resolve. "I need you to teach me the shadow sword!" Koji closed his eyes for at least a minute, contemplating whether the secrets of the shadow sword could be given out to Ikki, his worst enemy of all people. He finally opened his eyes.

"Give me a good reason to teach this to you. Why would you need this move?"

"This guy is a complete jerk! He kept destroying medabots until someone would tell him where you were. It was disgusting! Medabots were lying on the floor damaged way beyond repair. Metabee couldn't even move right and he still attacked! This would be bad enough, but he was smiling at every medabot he crushed. I can't let him go!"

"That's right," Metabee butted in. "That arrogant little punk didn't even care when his own medabot was trashed. If he thinks he can beat me twice in a row he's even more cocky than me! And that, Metabee doesn't like."

"Explains why I don't like you all too much either," Windstorm interrupted.

"Hey, I took you out, twice! So you can't say a word!" Leaving them to argue, Ikki continued.

"As for the shadow sword, I'm not telling you why I need it yet, just come and watch when the time comes. But if I want to beat that guy then I need to know how to use the shadow Sword!" Koji glared at Ikki.

"The Shadow sword requires weeks of vigorous practise to learn, and months to master, all of which Space Medafighter X crammed into me in a matter of hours. Once you start, you will not be able to eat, sleep or drink until it is done. Are you up to the challenge?"

"More than up to it!" Ikki yelled.

"Hmm-hmm that's right," agreed Metabee.

"Yeah, me and the tin-can can handle it," concluded Windstorm.

"You will need to know the basics of kendo before you can begin. That could prolong the training even more."

"I used to do fencing; I think I can handle it without extra classes!" Ikki exclaimed.

"I'm die hard so, yeah," Metabee said.

"Do you have to ask me if all I use are swords?" Windstorm said, getting annoyed at it all.

"Then fine. But don't wimp out on me like a common peasent," Koji said, a slight smile spreading across his face. "Call your mum and tell her you're sleeping over. This could take hours." Ikki exhaled the breath he had been holding. Metabee jumped into the air screaming "All right!" Windstorm sat cross legged in the air with a content look in her eyes. Koji put his hand up in the air for silence. "But you aren't getting sympathy from me, slacker. Get to work! To the gardens, double time! Move!"

. . .

"All right Ikki, show me what you've got!" Ikki stood four meters away from Koji Karakuchi. Koj was wearing a simple Karate gii with a cream coloured tunic-thing and blue pants. Ikki was wearing a white jump suit that fencer often use but without the helm. Koji used a standard kendo stick while Ikki had a specialised wooden stick designed for fencing, but not as flexible so he could defend himself from Koji's weapon. It just meant that Ikki's weapon could do just as much damage as Koji's. Ikki readied himself. He straightened himself and held his mock sword with one hand, pointing somewhere between Koji and the sky. He stood sideways with his right sword arm towards Koji while his left hand was behind his back. Koji stood with his body facing Ikki, legs apart with his right leg facing forwards in front of his body. A thin stream of sweat trickled down the side of Ikki's head. Sumilidon was busy training Windstorm similarily and Metabee stood watching Ikki and Koji. He might have lost his memories, but Ikki was still his medafighter.

_Or I can at least pretend he's my medafighter, _Metabee thought mischeviously. _I'm my own medafighter! _Ikki stared at Koji's emotionless face. His expression was blsnk, but his eyes had a determination in them that Ikki only saw in the strongest of medafighters. They stared like that for a minute, waiting for someone to betray an inch of action. Koji's eyes narrowed.

_Now's my chance,_ Ikki thought, charging at Koji, intending to stab him in the gut. Koji gracefully dodged to one side tripping Ikki on the tip of his sword. Just before Ikki hit the floor, Koji rapped him hard on the top of his head, slamming Ikki's chin into the ground.

"You're pretty quick, for a tortoise wearing lead shoes maybe!" Ikki growled at Koji's mocking remarking and got to his feet to cut across Koji's chest. Koji easily ducked under the attack and rammed his shoulder into Ikki's exposed gut. Ikki stepped back just in time and cleared the distance between them.

_My style is best at a distance. He can't touch me from here. _Ikki attacked with a barrage of rapid stabs, hoping to disorient Koji enough to get a hit in, but Koji just parried or dodged every single one.

"Your style is weak, a battle is only meant to last a split second. Like this!" Koji knocked Ikki's sword away as if it were a fly, and then disappeared into the shadows. Ikki looked around frantically for Koji before he felt a searing, mind numbing pain across his back. He fell down on one knee as the pain kept increasing intensity. Koji appeared in front of Ikki's vision, a slight smile on his face. "That is the power of the shadow sword. Your sword is weak and you don't even know how to use your method of fighting to the best of its potential. You should just stick to robattles. But I can say, you did well for a newbie. You deserve to learn the Shadow Sword!" Ikki smiled weakly, happy that he had succeded, but annoyed at getting wiped out so easily.

"Hey Ikki! Way to go man! You did it! Yeah!" Metabee was cheering at the news from his seat. Ikki's smile widened, but only slightly. Ever since Metabee got his medal repaired he's occasionally acted nicer. It wasn't much of a difference, but Ikki could notice. It was kind of nice, but Ikki couldn't help feeling a twang of regret.

"Thanks Metabee," Ikki said weakly.

"You rocked! Well, apart from the beating, and the bruises you took, and how he made you look pathetic again, and again, and again. But that doesn't matter when you consider how you sucked already!" Ikki's eyes flared up in rage as he mustered all his will to hold back his fist, literally grabbing it with his other arm.

_It's still Metabee all right! But on second thought, maybe a change would have actually been better. Or even death!_

"Hey tin-can, I don't see you doing better," an obnoxious voice said behind a clump of trees. Windstorm emerged, bruised and battered with her favourite katana snapped in half. The white and blue sleeve that came with it was torn and shredded. She didn't have her usual energy with her. Her eyes had turned a darker shade of purple and if she was a human, they would have been sunken into her head with exhaustion.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Metabee asked, more politely than he would have normally.

"Sumilidon happened. That's what."

. . .

Everything in a forest becomes strangely twisted and exaggerated at night. Shadows appear, stretching far more than should be possible. The trees drooped and stretched, attempting to tear the skin off of whosoever gets near them. They looked to have an evil grin across there bark, like disfigured bark. A threatening fog hung over the air as it suffocated all it ensnared, or made them think they were being suffocated. Strange sounds could be heard all around, as twigs snapped and owls hooted. Ikki lay on the floor breathing heavily as he caught his breath. A snake slithered right in front of his face and stared at him. It flicked its tongue out of its mouth, tasting the air for prey, then resumed its journey.

Ikki stood up on shakey legs. Koji looked down on him, holding a stopwatch while Sumilidon held a bunch of apples. Windstorm sat on a tree stump watching.

"Ok Ikki, one more try. You've nearly got it," Koji said

"Right, here goes!" Sumilidon tossed all the apples into the air while Koji pressed down on the stopwatch. Ikki jumped into the air, the katana he was holding gleaming from the moons light. A flash of light burnt everyones eyes. A split second later, all the apples fell from the sky split in half. One was even cut into eights. Ikki landed on the floor panting heavily.

"Thirty apples in one second, on the dot. Not good enough to be called the Shadow Sword but pretty impressive."

"Not good enough?" Ikki asked dejectedly.

"Nope. You just aren't working hard enough. Do it three times as fast! Now!"

"But you said one more try!"

"I lied to get you moving. Now go!" Sumilidon tossed yet another batch of apples. Throughout the night, all that was heard was either Koji yelling at Ikki or Windstorm getting beaten by Sumilidon.

"One second again. Go... One second fifty. You're slower! Go... ninety five milliseconds. Not bad, go..."

. . .

Ikki stepped into his own home. His whole body ached and throbbed and each movement sent a wave of fresh pain to the limb that was moved. Metabee kept grumbling about not doing anything and Windstorm lagged a bit behind, floating in the air. Mrs Tenryou looked up from the ironing she was doing.

"Ikki, you're back! How was the sleepover? Was it fun?" Ikki let loose a huge smile that spread across his face from ear to ear.

"It was great mom," Ikki said, even though he was half dead by the time he was done training. He wasn't even sure if the training had paid off. Mrs Tenryou looked around Ikki and saw Metabee and Windstorm.

"It looks like Metabee's back. I'm glad he recovered. And who's your new friend? Metabee, is this your girlfriend?"

"NO!" Metabee and Windstorm yelled together, a slight tinge of red showing beneath their cheeks (which should be impossible with Medabots being made of metal with no blood, but I guess there would be a tiny machine underneath their faces for such moments).

"She's not my girlfriend," Metabee said, getting all worked up.

"Yeah, I don't even _like _tin-can, how could we get together?" Windstorm shouted angrily.

"Ok, just asking. I hope you won't run off like that again though. Right Ikki?"

"Uh..." Ikki looked away scratching his head.

"Oh no, where are you going this time?"

"Just to the police station. Nothing serious you know, heh heh..."

"No, not this time. You need rest and I will put my foot down, right..." Ikki had already sprinted out of the room before he could be caught, leaving behind Windstorm's medaparts.

. . .

The Select corps' base of operations was pretty much like any other police station. Filled with cops. Ikki felt nervous walking around them when just the other day he blew up half of the park but it had to be done. Ikki entered the near spotless building. Metabee was close behind him the whole time. Ikki didn't know when it happened, but suddenly Metabee wouldn't let him touch his medal again so he couldn't be left at home and be transported later. Windstorm was more than happy to be left behind though, as long as she didn't have to see Metabee's face she was always fine. He kept her medal with him though. He would need her later.

Ikki walked up to the receptionist who was busy filing her nails and talking on the phone. It didn't sound like anyone important was on the phone, unless boyfriends are.

"Excuse me, miss, has a weird kid with blue hair covering his face come through here anytime?" The receptionist looked up from the desk.

"I'll call you right back, my little teddy bear!" The receptionist addressed Ikki this time after hanging up. "I'm sorry, what did you say? A kid with shaggy hair right? He came in with a bunch of cops. He was holding a bunch of destroyed beetle medaparts. He went that way." She pointed towards a door to her left. Ikki thanked her and went on. He took two steps before the lady caught his wrist. "Hold on, who allowed you to go? If this guy's a friend of yours than you'll just have to wait out here.

"But I need to..."

"What's your name kid? Wha's your ranking?"

"I'm Ikki Tenryou, world's second strongest medafighter and this is Metabee."

"Tenryou? Ikki Tenryou? Oh I'm sorry for interrupting you, please, step right this way. Heh heh heh... Sorry for stoping you, I, um... Mistook you! Yeah that's right... Mistook you, hey?" Metabee looked at her sceptically.

"Yo, I know we're famous, even though I can't remember, but that's not a good enough reason to open the place is it?"

"Of course not, I mean... Yes it is, heh heh, just, go. Shoo, I mean... Please go, ha," The receptionist marched them out of the room to the door. The door slammed shut behind them. The pair looked at eachother, shrugged, and moved on. Everywhere they went, they told the cops or the Select Corps their sir names and they could pass. Eventually they arrived at an interrogation room. The gaurd stopped Ikki, something rare seeing as everyone let him pass.

"Hold it, who let you through? Nobody but the interrogator is allowed past this point. We need to find out where those parts of his came from, and you definitely aren't gonna find out!" Windstorm spoke from Ikki's medawatch.

"Well then, I guess you're not meant to be here,"

"What do you mean?"

"You said, 'nobody but the interrogator is allowed past this point,' so _you _need to get _out!_"

"But _I'm _the gaurd! You can't kick me out!"

"Sorry buddy, as part of the interrogation team of Mr Tenryou, I'm just following orders."

"But, but, but, but,"

"Dude, just go," Metabee said patting the upset policeman roughly on the shoulder. "You've done your job well. Interrogator Tenryou will need his own space to get what we need though.

"Right," the cop choked. "I've done my job well, I'm fine." The gate gaurd handed over the keys to Ikki and walked out dejectedly. Ikki unlocked the gate and stepped inside.

**It would be mean if I stopped the chapter **_**right **_**before the showdown with the kid. After all, 4,900 words is my limit. However, just for today, I'll be nice, and give you the fight you've been waiting for! 5,000 words, here I come!**

The kid in the centre of the room looked as evil as he ever had. His mangy hair covered his eyes, blocking out whatever laid behind them. His clothes were covered in grime and mud from the last fight he was in. His face had large purple welts all over it from his interrogation. And yet, he was still smiling, as if nothing had happened. Windstorm growled at him from Ikki's medawatch.

"There's something about this guy that I just don't like. I don't know what but I just don't like him."

"For once, I agree with you," Metabee said. "Metabee just don't like that guy."

"That's just because he beat you, and badly too."

"Hey, Metabee doesn't get beaten by nobody!"

"So how come a Windsail nearly thrashed you?"

"_Nearly! _You hear that, _nearly! _I just let her wire me so that she felt confident, and then BOOM! Medaforce!"

"And yet your medal turned into an egg. What does that say about you?"

"So you think you're stronger than me?"

"Who cares what I am if you can't even fight a model more outdated and defective than yourself!"

"What? Oh, so it's like that now,"

"You bet it's like that. You've got to show some respect!"

"Respect for your bad breath? I don't think so,"

"Excuse me," The blue haired kid said. "But didn't you come for a robattle?" Ikki and Metabee blinked twice before regaining their composure.

"Yeah, if I win, tell me why you're here. If you win, I leave you to do what you want, no matter how horrible!"

"And of course, our medaparts. I still have your Metabee's old seeker missiles, but I don't need them. They don't match my Zorin. And besides, they were too busted too repair!"

"Enough talk! Transport, Windstorm!"

"It's about time!" Windstorm yelled as her body came into view. Its right arm was already transformed into her katana. Ikki placed her medal inside it and her eyes lit up. Metabee gave the kid his medawatch. The kid stood up from his chair and brought the medawatch up to his face.

"Transport, Zorin, Rox!" Two flashes of light light the whole room up as they appeared, almost twins to eachother. They both looked almost exactly like eachother, except that the Rox was slightly purple and had a smaller hammer. The medawatches flashed with data.

**Saikachis (Metabee): Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Ikki**

**Specialty: Seeker missiles**

**Signature: Demolition mode**

**Windstorm: Nae's workshop**

**Medafighter: Ikki**

**Specialty: Shadow Sword**

**Signature: CQC**

**Zorin: Medabot Corporation/Extreme Tech**

**Medafighter: Unknown**

**Specialty: Medaforce**

**Signature: Ultimate style control**

**Rox: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Unknown**

**Specialty: Medachange**

**Signature: Sky high attack**

"Then it's agreed!" The police guard came back to see the commotion, only to rip off all of his clothes... and show it was Mr. Referee in disguise. "I officially declare this a submission robattle! The loser must submit one medapart, for keeps! Medafighters ready? Medabots, robattle!"

"Metabee, chain machinegun on that Rox! Double time! Widstorm, support medapart!" Metabee fired a volley of bullets into the two medabots. They dodged around him effortlessly. Rox zoomed toward Metabee, sword gleaming, despite the lack of light.

"Not so fast," Windstorm interrupted as her arm transformed into a pnk arm with a large stopwatch attached to it. The arms of the clock spun around wildly and suddenly, Metabee disappeared. He showed up again next to Windstorm and fired his rifle, three times in Zorin's face.

"Zorin, monkey to Ox!" Zorin flipped over Windstorm's head and landed behind Metabee. Metabee turned around to fire at him but the Zorin was already charging at him. Zorin rammed his shoulder into Metabee's gut, forcing Metabee to double over in pain before he brought his sword arm up to slash off Metabee's head. It went down to an inch over his neck. Windstorm's watch arm spun rapidly again and Metabee suddenly disappeared. Ikki smiled.

"So long as Windstorm has that arm of hers, Metabee will be way too fast for you to do anything to him! And you can't try take out Windstorm because Metabee will just appear again to blow you to pieces!" As if on cue, Metabee reappeared above the Rox.

"Kiss your bot goodbye!" Metabee screamed, sending to full power seeker missiles into the medabot's face.

"Zorin," The kid began, but Zorin was a step ahead, with his horns glowing blue. The missiles exploded on impact, blowing a hole in the wall to reveal the city outside.

"Ha! You were too late! I was actually faster than you!"

"Those missiles of yours are devastating," The kid said as the dust began to clear. "However, nobody is faster than my Zorin. Not by an inch!" As the dust cloud disappeared, Ikki saw Rox and Zorin in perfect condition. A blue force field surrounded them both. "Now you will see the true power of my KWG type medabots! Zorin, rabbit technique! Negative power leach!" Zorin's horns glowed pink. He pointed his horns towards Metabee and the tips of the horns started glowing white. The tips of Metabee's horns also glowed white for a split second before he suddenly collapsed onto the floor.

"Metabee, what's going on?"

"Ikki, my legs, I can't feel my legs!" The Zorin actually appeared happy.

"Of course you can't feel them. With the negative power leach, I can drain all the speed from your legs. You could heal your legs by sending extra power to them, but you will be nowhere near as fast as before! You'll be back to your snail pace! Ha!" Windstorm snarled.

"Oi, Metabee, what are you doing messing up the boss's plans?"

"It's not my fault I got hit!"

"Whatever, I'll just send you more juice and you'll be gone." The watch started spinning rapidly again.

"Not so fast," the kid said while Zorin aimed his horns at Windstorm. Her watch suddenly slowed to a crawl, while Zorin's legs started shaking. "Thank you for donating your speed to me. As a reward you can get a double dose of pain!" Zorin disappeared in a flash of light.

"Hey, boss, what just happened?" Windstorm said, with a tremble in her voice as Rox also disappeared. Before Ikki could say anything, Rox reappeared behind Windstorm, stabbing her in the back. Windstorm grunted and turned around with rage, the sword arm sliding out of her back.

" So you think you're funny now?" She did a handstand and kicked Rox hard underneath the jaw, launching him into the air. She quickly got back to her feet and shot after him. She went behind him and grabbed his waist. She started rotating along with him the whole way until they started falling again, headfirst to the ground. The two of them became a blur, like a tornado. "**Konoha style primary lotus!"** She disengaged at the last moment and left him to his doom. He crashed into the ground with his horns getting stuck in the earth.

**Head medapart 90% damage. Critical damage. Leg medapart 50% damage.**

The Rox pulled his head out of the ground before flopping on the ground again.

"Zorin, full recovery!" The Zorin's horns turned yellow and sparks glittered around them.

"Not so fast. Metabee, demolition mode! Windstorm, interrupt part change!" Windstorm's right arm changed into a yellow arm holding a golden sceptre. Metabee slowly transformed into demolition mode. Windstorm flew over towards Zorin.

"I don't like your antennae, buddy!" She slashed an X across the sky with the Sceptre. The X glowed and burned as if on fire. She then whacked it like a baseball towards Zorin. It fell atop him like a hammer on a forge, plastering him to the floor. His horns turned back to blue. Metabee finished transforming just then.

"Booyah!" Metabee roared as he sent a huge energy ball out of his demolition cannon. The screaming attack crashed into Zorin, sending sparks everywhere.

**All medaparts at 50% damage. Caution is advised**

Zorin fell to one knee and looked up at Metabee with an unreadable look. His medafighter frowned.

"You're a bit different than last time. You're more sure of yourself than you were when we last fought. You no longer have doubts. That's good. I don't have to worry about injuring your medabot now." Ikki looked at him with anger. Metabee steamed with fury.

"We don't care about that," Ikki said.

"Yeah, that's right. We just wanna robattle!" Metabee finished off as he reverted back to normal.

"I see... Zorin! No more holding back! Rox, get up already!" Rox stood up again and corrected his dented horns. They began glowing green. At once, all the damage on him recovered.

"No way, he can also do that fake horn thing," Metabee said agonized.

"Aw man, I thought we could win," Windstorm remarked, dejectedly.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan," Ikki reassured.

"Right, I trust you Ikkster. Just don't forget the plan again!"

"Thanks Metabee. Now, transform into action mode. Windstorm, last resort!"

"Yeah-yeah!" Ikki exclaimed, transforming at the same time. Windstorm's arm morphed into the katana she usually favoured.

"Now is the time for the Shadow Sword!" Windstorm shut her eyes in concentration and her mechanic hair floated with energy.

"Zorin, Rox, double team rapid slash!" Zorin and Rox split into multiple copies of themselves as they spread around Metabee, circling him.

"We know what your action mode is capable of, so we won't give you a chance to use it! Plus, you aren't very good against air type medabots. You have a bad record with flying medabots. Like maybe Rox? Demolition mode!" All of the Rox clones transformed while moving to go on four legs. The feet had rocket boots attached to them, along with the forelegs. They all flew around him quickly, occasionally scratching bits of his armor off. His machinegun even exploded on his shoulder.

"Yo, Ikki, I can't keep taking hits!"

"I know! Windstorm, hurry up and charge the Shadow Sword!" Windstorm's eyes flashed open, brighter than normal.

"It is done." Windstorm flew up into the sky and rocketed towards the outside wall of clones. Her sword gleamed in the light. She charged into the thick of the wall and spun around like a monster beyblade. Zorin was sent flying through the sky with a shattered visor and a destroyed hammerfist. Windstorm flew up towards Rox who was still in the air.

"Rox, medablast!" Rox charged a crescent shaped blast between his horns and aimed at Windstorm. Windstorm disappeared like a shadow being struck by daylight. It was like she had dissolved into the air. A creping shadow crawled around Rox'x back.

"Rox! Get out of there!" The shadow reformed into Windstorm who cut once across Rox's back. Eight individual slashed were heard after that one cut, all too fast to see, before Rox's parts split up into sixteen separate pieces, revealing only his tin-pet. One large boom spread through the air like a sonic boom.

"No way, she was faster than the speed of sound..." Windstorm charged for Zorin. "Zorin, negative power leach!" Zorin's horns flashed into life as it drained Windstorm's speed, grinding her t a halt.

"No," Metabee wailed. "Now he has the power of the Shadow Sword with that speed."

"Not quite..." Ikki said. The kid smiled.

"I admit, you almost had me there. But you made the mistake of activating it while Zorin could still steal its speed. Zorin, use the Shadow Sword!" Zorin crossed one hundred metres in one second, before passing everyone he was aiming for and slamming into the wall. "What?" The boy shouted, indignant. "Try again!" Zorin tried, but slammed into another nearby building.

"You can't use the Shadow Sword with speed alone. It takes technique."

"But I've seen videos of it loads of times! I know the move inside and out!"

"But can _you _do it?" The kid looked to the floor, knowing the answer was no. "How can you expect your medabot to do something you aren't prepared to do yourself? You can never use the Shadow Sword!" Windstorm disappeared and reappeared in front of Zorin. They clashed swords.

"That's it, Zorin, medaforce!" Zorin glowed bright purple.

"Not a chance! Windstorm, Shadow Sword! Metabee, demolition mode!" Windstorm darted towards Zorin at mach 2 speeds, but abruptly stopped as if she had crashed into a wall. "No, the medaforce is too thick... Grrr, Metabee, fire at will!" Metabee fired to consecutive blasts at Zorin, but to no avail.

"Just say it boss, we're toast," Windstorm moaned. The sword of Zorin was pointed at Windstorm.

"Your first," Zorin growled menacingly. Metabee crawled next to her in demolition mode.

"Metabee, move. If that thing hits your medal a second time, you're done for."

"And what, you think you can survive? I'm not leaving you to shut down on your own. As the better between us, I need to watch out for you."

"Are you trying to be a hero? Get out stupid!"

"Forget it! Not while I can robattle!" Ikki's medawatch flashed.

**Beetle medal medamorphosis. You are now in the caterpillar stage. Good luck!**

"Yes," Ikki whispered. "Windstorm, action mode!"

"I don't have action mode!"

"You do now!" Ikki pressed his medawatch. Windstorm transformed against her will into a large ninja shuriken with a spherical bulge in the middle where her parts were. "Place yourself in Metabee's head cannon!"

"Uh, Ikki," Metabee interrupted. "Won't she, I dunno, die?"

"Just go!" Windstorm flew into Metabee's head canon. "Use the medablast!"

"Eat this!" Windstorm cried!

"Kiss your bot goodbye!" Metabee screamed. As one they yelled;

"**Medablast!" **Zorin also screamed;

"**Medaforce!"**

Zorins medaforce collided with them at just that instant, destroying the city street and melting cars in the process. Tree's became uprooted from the explosion. Spectators were bowled over as everything was consumed by the blast.

_**So... What happened? Peace out till then! My hand is in pain from all of this...**_


	6. Put the Screws to 'em!

**_Hey people! Last chapters ending was a bit rushed, there was meant to be a whole lot more happening moments before the medablast attack but I ran out of time and I just HAD to post it then and there. Either way, this chapter will start just moments before the release of the medablast as a result. It will have everything I had missed last time. I appreciate getting any reviews at all guys! Knowing that people actually do care about my fic drives me forward each new day! One thing though, while getting five reviews on a virtually dead forum is pretty good for a beginner; it is still very disappointing compared to some numbers I have seen. Especially since only two people review. Maybe only two people read? But if there are more readers, please review! I need to know how good or not good I am if I want to be an author._**

**_Peace!_**

**Chapter 6! Put the Screws to 'em!**

**Beetle metamorphosis. You are now in the caterpillar stage. Good luck!**

_Mr. Referee: Last time we saw the epic rematch between Ikki and the strange blue haired kid with me, Mr Referee, as referee. Ikki battled against his KWG type medabots using the awkward pair of Metabee and Windstorm. Things were looking good for Ikki and Metabee when suddenly, things went horribly wrong. Zorin activated the medaforce and Ikki's two trump cards, the Shadow Sword, and Demolition mode had no apparent effect. In the heat of the moment, Metabee's medal evolved into its original caterpillar state, making him strong enough to pair up with Windstorm to form a super medablast. As a last ditch effort, they clashed against Zorin's medaforce, despite the fact that it was even stronger than Metabee's ultimate attack, his medaforce. Will they manage to defeat the monster that is Zorin with the combined force of all their souls put together?_

**"Medablast!"**

**"Medaforce!"**

Windstorm spun rapidly inside Mtabee's demolition cannon, hovering slightly so as not to slice Metabee. She had to be extremely careful, but she couldn't risk limiting the strength of her attack too much. In the centre of the blast, she could feel the heat of the energy ball swirling around her now shuriken like form. She was a huge steel grey Shuriken with green and black lines running along the bulge in the centre. There was a hole in the middle of the bulge where you would normally grip the shuriken. Metabee's legs were digging into the ground, as if he weighed more than one hundred tons. He had never felt power like that before. It was like his whole body was a furnace, with the burning coal being Windstorm. All of his parts were going into overdrive. There were a few seconds left before both sides would be ready to fire. A huge crowd was watching and some had called their kids to watch, including the Screws, not knowing that they were all in danger.

"What is this power?" Windstorm asked.

"Demo-fusion," Ikki replied, smiling.

"Demo what?"

"Hey, Ikki," Metabee said into the medawatch, interrupting Windstorm. "We've had a lot of good times, and bad times. I can remember some as if it was happening right now, but most of them are just whispers in the wind. I don't know about you being strong enough to win the world championships, but you are a great medafighter. I'm glad I met you." Ikki tried not to think about how his medabot could possibly die here. He wasn't about to say he gave up. He would NEVER allow a creep like that to win. Windstorm was in too much pain to say anything positive.

"Hey, Metabee, I know that you wouldn't have given up so easily when you had your memories intact. I can't expect you to be yourself just yet, but I don't want you to give up like that. That's not you. We want to become the strongest, right? That dream hasn't died yet, has it?" Metabee would've stared at Ikki if he wasn't charging the attack.

_How could I let myself give up like that? I'm the one with the strongest medafighter I've ever met as a medafighter. I'm the one with the nutty medabot aiming straight at him. I'm the one who has all the power. Ikki's right. I can't back down now. I'll fight until I'm nothing more than an old spanner, and then I'll still fight even harder!_

Metabee and Ikki didn't know it at the time, but that whole exchange was only five seconds long. They weren't using the medawatches. Time had stopped completely for them in the heat of the moment and the remains of the bond they shared had flared up once again. Finally Metabee snapped out of it and prepared to strike.

"Dude, I rock," Metabee said.

"Kiss your bot goodbye!" Windstorm added.

**"Medablast!"**

**"Medaforce!"**

Windstorm shot straight out of Metabee's demolition cannon at unbelievable speeds, green and purple energy waves trailing out behind her as she launched towards Zorin, who had slashed out the sinister attack from his claws.

Zorin's medaforce collided with Windstorm at just that instant, destroying the city street and melting cars in the process. Trees became uprooted from the explosion. Spectators were bowled over as everything was consumed by the blast. Metabee was lost from view under the resulting explosion, completely consumed by pure Meda-energy. The noise itself was deafening and Ikki held his ears in agonizing, excruciating pain. Windstorm's condition was not something Ikki wanted to think about, if he could still think with wave after wave of energy assaulting him. A green, blue and purple dome was swirling around in the middle of the road where the collision had occurred. Gale force winds were being tossed out from it, buffeting anything within one hundred metres to it. It swirled there in the middle of everything with Windstorm somewhere inside the heart of it.

After another minute of aftershocks and wind, a huge chunk of the dome tore off of the main piece. The remaining part of the dome vanished with the wind while the torn off chunk flew towards Zorin, ripping up the road along the way. A tiny stream of fire was pushing the huge chunk along, coming from Metabee's canon. Windstorm, Ikki knew, was right inside that chunk of energy. Zorin fell to his knees as his energy left him and his eyes appeared to close, as if he had resigned himself to his fate. The blast slammed into Zorin with an explosion even more terrifying than the first. Ikki refused to shield his eyes, trying to get as much of the picture into his mind.

As the sound of the impact died down, all anyone could hear was a high pitched whining noise. Some people's ears had blood dripping from them. Ikki fell to the ground, feeling as if he had run across the whole of Japan and then swam across to China. The blue haired kid was on the floor a few metres away. Ikki smiled at the fact that there was no evil grin on the kids face for once. Ikki looked at his two medawatches which were miraculously still intact. They beeped with the match results.

**Windstorm all medaparts 100% damage. Functions ceased.**

**Metabee leg and arm parts 80% damage. Head medapart 87% damage. Seeker computer offline.**

**Zorin all medaparts 150% damage. Functions ceased.**

"Functions ceased! The winner is, Metabee and Windstorm!" Metabee transformed back to normal slowly, with bits of his armour falling off of him. His right eye was smashed and kept sparking. The shuriken that was Windstorm lay shattered on the floor, but the bulge in the middle was gone. Instead, Windstorm was standing up, holding her katana which was cut in half. Apart from the tin-pet, her left arm had fallen off. Her eyes were dark as if they were off. Her sword was still shimmering slightly as if she had used the Shadow Sword. Despite the fact that her functions should have ceased, she still spoke:

"Heh, looks like we did it tin-can," she said weakly. She then went limp and her medal ejected with a surprisingly soft clink. It had a picture of a stereotype alien sitting down on it. The crowd that had gathered cheered and whooped and ran over to congratulate Ikki. However, most if the adults had long since called the police. Everyone was baffled as to why they hadn't already stopped the fight seeing as they were robattling right outside the police station. In fact the police station seemed unnaturally empty. But none of the kids cared right then and there. Ikki was being carried into the air by the Screws gang and kids all over were charging to their hero to get his autograph. The parents kept pulling them away in case something else exploded. Ikki tried to get out of the crowd but he just didn't have the energy. Finally, Mr. Referee interrupted.

"Wait! Ikki still needs to get the medaparts he won!" Surprisingly, everyone shut up. Mr. Referee was well respected everywhere. The crowd moved aside and gave Ikki his space, the Screws even dropping him onto the ground with a loud thump. Ikki shakily got to his feet and walked over to the blue haired boy. The kid had at some point gotten up and crawled to his medabot. His hair still covered his eyes and Ikki couldn't tell if the smile on his face was happiness or just the punk trying to deny that he had lost. Ikki stared at the Zorin. Its horns were ripped completely off of its head. They were glowing bright blue so he guessed he had put up a shield to protect himself. Obviously, the shield didn't help. It had no right arm. It was torn off of his shoulder. His hammer fist arm was shattered. His bicep was just the tin-pet on its own. His left leg was lying next to Windstorm's shuriken parts, sliced off by the attack. His right leg was twisted right around the wrong way. All of his parts were charred and looked a dull grey. His medal was lying next to his head. It showed a stag beetle in flight. There was a large chip on it, but the medalias was unharmed.

_Thank goodness, _Ikki thought to himself. _I might not like the kid, but his medabot doesn't deserve to be destroyed. _Ikki looked at the kid again and extended his hand towards him. The kid tilted his head up so he appeared to be looking at Ikki.

"That was a great robattle," Ikki said. "But the next time you go messing with people's medabots, don't forget that you're not the strongest. You made the mistake of thinking you could absorb the Shadow Sword. You thought I had forgotten that you could absorb speed, even though that is the only way you had been beating me the whole fight. A master medafighter would never make such an obvious mistake. You were too used to picking on little kids so never used any strategy. Your Zorin isn't invincible. There are loads of flaws in its Ultimate style control that you hadn't noticed. I just found one of them. Don't underestimate your opponent. Especially with Zorin's antennae. Once I found one weakness, you had lost the whole battle." The kid grabbed Ikki's hand to shake it grudgingly and pulled himself up off the floor.

"Fine, Tenryou, you've won. As I promised, I'll stop bullying kids into finding strong medafighters. It seems that this town has a whole bundle of strong guys."

"There's lots of them?"

"Well, not exactly lots of them. Just that normally, I only ever find one or two guys who can scratch Zorin, and nearly none who can beat him. I guess you'll need my Zorin's horns?"

"You bet! Cough it up!" Metabee shouted before clutching his chest in pain.

"No, not the horns. Maybe the legs..."

"Not a chance! We've earned those medaparts fair and square!"

"Whatever. You can take your Metabee's seeker missiles back if you want. I guess I should tell you what you want to know." He pressed a button on his medawatch. "Hey, I've finished up here... Yeah I'm doing my job right... He was actually strong! You couldn't beat him... Whatever." He pushed the button again and the call cut. "Alright, I guess it's time to tell you why I'm here then...

**_Moments before the robattle had erupted:_**

Samantha sat in her bedroom, polishing Peppercat's left arm. Peppercat's parts were strewn across a desk with the wires and bolts showing. A bunch of spanners and screwdrivers were lying around on the floor and one of the wrenches was actually bent in half. Samantha's medawatch was on the bed with Peppercat's medal inside it so that she could still talk to her.

"Aw man, Peppercat, we really haven't been doing too good. Two major losses in a row? That's not gonna look good on the Screws' record."

"Cheer up boss! We fought harder than most against the first guy. We actually survived for five minutes."

"Yeah, and we didn't even lay a dent on him."

"But he healed himself! We shut down his left arm."

"Only because we triple teamed him," Samantha said downcast. "And then we robattled Ikki. I thought he would be weaker since Metabee lost his memories. Boy, were we wrong."

"But none of us thought he would have a new medabot. You know that without her we would have won. No contest."

"No, Ikki's just way too good. If I went one-on-one, I would have lost for sure."

"Boss, you're a great medafighter. Everyone has a bad day, you just had two _really _bad days," Peppercat said, trying not to make Samantha upset. "We won't lose the next time!"

"Maybe... But then there's Spyke!" Samantha clenched her fists in rage. "That fool completely ruined the robattle! If Krosserdog hadn't jumped into Totalizer, maybe they would have survived against the Windsail!" Samantha banged her fist on the desk, splintering the wood. Her fist then unclenched. "No. Windsail was way too fast for them, period. That little slip up wasn't enough to stop us from winning. I just didn't try hard enough." A single tear dropped down Samantha's cheek, followed by three more.

_No, I can't start crying again. I can't let people know that I cry. I'm Samantha of the Screws gang! Someone as tough as me can't afford to start crying! Not again..._

"Samantha," Peppercat said softly, calling her by her name instead of boss. "I don't like to see someone as strong as you beating yourself up over it.

"But I've only ever beaten Ikki once! And that was just luck! I'm not good enough to be called a medafighter."

"That's not true! You're the strongest medafighter I've ever known and ever will know. I might not be as wise as Rokusho, but I know that Samantha would never let herself feel so down because of one loss. The Samantha I know would go out and beat the snot out of anyone who even _dares _to call her weak. The Samantha I know would robattle with all her heart against even the strongest of enemies, shouting about how the Screws gang is the strongest group the world has ever seen!

"Samantha, you can't let a few losses bring you down. I've seen what you can do. I should know, I'm your medabot. I know that we're not the bravest, or the strongest, or even the smartest! But once we put our mind to it, we can topple anyone in our way, and look good doing it. Because you are Samantha, leader of the Screws gang, my amazing medafighter... And my best friend." Tears filled Samantha's eyes, despite all her best efforts to stop it.

_I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry... _She caved in and grabbed the meadwatch with Peppercat's medal inside and squeezed it as much as she could, tears flowing like a river.

"Thanks Peppercat. That really means a lot to me!" Just then, Spyke and Sloan tumbled through the bedroom door and fell on the not-so-soft wooden floorboards. Samantha looked up angrily at the two fools.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" She screamed at them.

"S-s-s-s-sorry boss. W-we-we didn't want to interrupt," Spyke stammered.

"I DON'T CARE! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO KNOCK ON A DOOR BEFORE COMING IN? WHAT IF I WAS CHANGING MY CLOTHES?"

"We're sorry boss, its urgent! There's a... Hey, boss? Were you crying?" Samantha stopped. Her eyes were puffy and red from how much she had been crying and there were still a few tears on her cheek from after Peppercat's speech.

"WHAT? IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT I SWEAT FROM MY EYES!" Samantha quickly rubbed her eyes, and then seeing the confused faces of her teammates, gave up the false pretence. "If you tell anyone, and I mean _anyone _that I was crying..."

"Sure, sure, we get it! But we have other problems! A rival gang is trying to take over the 24 Hour Hop mart! They've already declared themselves the new rulers of the school, and now they're after our favourite spot! The Ankle biters tried to robattle them, but they got beat before they could even cry to their mommies!" Samantha got up with newfound strength.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

. . .

"No! Pretty Prime!" The Screws heard a medal clink and eject. A little girl in a blue dress ran to a beaten down female knight medabot and cradle it in her arms. A short brown haired boy was next to the girl, robattling against an older boy. The little kid had short, brown hair and was wearing a yellow shirt and blue shorts. He was holding a medawatch up to his face.

"Komandog, charge," the kid said. His medabot was a dog like medabot with its eyes appearing to be closed. He had large beam cannons for hands and instead of walking, he moved around on a special round tail shaped like a huge coma with a wheel inside it. Spyke's medawatch recognized it.

**Komandog: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Tak**

**Specialty: Beam attacks**

**Signature: Hound out**

Komandog's wheel spun on the tarmac with a screeching noise and he zoomed forward. He aimed his cannons at the enemy medabot and fired two massive laser beams at it. The opposing medabot ducked underneath the searing hot beam and just narrowly avoided the second one as it shot underneath his left arm.

"Gun-Nose, use your gun-magnum," Tak's enemy shouted. His KBT type medabot brought up a huge rifle attached to his right arm. A laser aimed at Komandog's tail. Wherever Komandog moved, the laser would follow. "Now, fire!" Gun-Nose shot once, his whole arm recoiling from the bullet. A thin blue tracer trailed out from behind, giving the bullet a futuristic appearance. It hit dead centre in the middle of the comma part of his tail. His tyre exploded and Komandog skidded on the floor until he got up on his two tiny legs which were next to useless at walking. Gun-nose shot two full power seeker missiles straight at Komandog. His medal clinked on the floor. The Gun-nose's medafighter walked to the medal and picked it up. Two other medafighters were with him.

"Alright you little brats," said the girl between the two boys. "We're the new gang here. We're part of team Fiyun, a notorious gang from our hometown. We're in charge here and you'll have to answer to us. Unless you can find the best of the best, like I dunno, Space Medafighter X maybe? Unless you can find him, we're gonna take all of your medals." Henry who was watching the whole time gulped nervously. Sweat dripped down his brow.

_Aw man, I thought I was done with Space Medafighter X. Of course, I miss robbatling, but until I can do it without getting in jail, I don't wanna go back to this._

"Don't bother call the cops. We already took care of them. If you want trouble still, the muscles over here, Kenny, and his Gun-Nose will turn you to dog meat." Henry looked at Gun-Nose.

_Gun-Nose. Never heard of him. He must be new to the KBT series. A prototype maybe? _Gun-Nose looked a lot bigger than Metabee and he was more aerodynamic. His shoulders weren't symmetrical, but his right shoulder was black and stuck out to the side. His right arm had a big yellow rifle attached to it and his left arm had a huge yellow Gatling gun with a black tip. His horns weren't on top of his head, but rather, on his forehead going straight up. They were pretty long for a head canon. It looked a bit like a nose at first glance but it was nowhere near where a nose should be. His feet had claws on them. Henry could tell at first glance that Ikki wouldn't be able to beat it. His medafighter was pretty big himself. He looked like he was maybe sixteen and he was wearing a green shirt with blue baggy jeans. He had really dark skin like he was from Africa. From what Henry had been seeing of his robattles, he was pretty good.

_Nobody here can hope to even touch those guys. Arcbeetle could probably beat him, but I can't use it without revealing myself. I could get my old costume but I can't find it anymore under all of my junk. What could I do..._

"Any complaints, now's your time to speak them," the female boss of the gang concluded.

"I have a complaint!" Samantha and the Screws walked towards the gang of teenagers. "This here spot is Screws Gang property. If you think you can muscle up on our territory, then you've got another thing coming!"

"Oh? The little girl's trying to play hero isn't she? And just who are you clowns?" Spyke stepped forward.

"I'm Spyke, the maintenance part of the notorious Screws gang. Me and Krosserdog will take you out!" The big teenager stepped forward and Spyke seemed to disappear instantly and reappear behind Sloan's hulking frame. Sloan knocked Spyke away and stepped forward.

"I'm the muscle of the gang, Sloan. I won't talk about my medabot as that might reveal a weakness, _Spyke!_" Spyke looked down ashamed. "If you try anything funny, I'll mess up your clothes!"

"Wow, I'm scared already," The girl said. "Dirty laundry is soooo frightening." Samantha stepped forward.

"I'm Samantha, leader of the Srews gang! You don't even deserve to know what my medabot can do so get moving or get robattling!" The girl smiled.

"All right, are you ready for a beat down you'll never forget?" The girl snarled.

"Yeah!" Spyke shouted before Samantha glared at him until he realised what he had just said. "I mean, no! We're ready to beat _you _down!"

"Then it's agreed!" Everyone looked around for Mr Referee. A garden gnome which was oddly placed next to the store opened up and revealed... A tape recorder and a deflated balloon! The balloon blew itself up and revealed a fake Mr Referee. The recorder played Mr Referee's voice. "My dummy officially declares this a submission robattle! I am currently in the middle of refereeing another robattle so I cannot come in person. However, attached to this gnome is a video recorder showing another referee the whole robattle, so no cheating! When the match is over, remember to flip the tape. Are we ready?"

"Transport, Krosserdog!"

"Transport, Totalizer!"

"Transport, Peppercat!" The medabots materialized in front of the Screws. Henry looked at them, wondering if they even stood a chance. The big kid, Kenny, brought Gun-Nose forward. The girl stepped forward. She had short hair that made her look like Cleopatra. She had black jeans and a dark blue T-shirt with a picture of a dragon crushing a skull. She wore a black hunter vest on top of it. The third guy came into view.

He was dressed plainly. He had a black shirt and blue shorts. His hair was messy with a blue bandana tied around it.

"Transport, Sanjuuro," he said. A KWG type medabot materialized in front of them. He looked a lot more like a samurai than most KWG types. His sword was no longer the small one that Rokusho normally has. It was a long katana attached to his wrist. Its left arm was twice Rokusho's size and a dark shade of purple. With the horns included, it was almost as tall as Ikki.

"Transport, Redlace," the girl said. A red butterfly medabot appeared wings and all. The medawatches showed info on the participants.

**Krosserdog: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Spyke**

**Specialty: Rifle tactics**

**Signature: Unpredictability**

**.**

**Totalizer: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Sloan**

**Specialty: Beam attacks**

**Signature: Special beam canon**

**.**

**Peppercat: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Samantha**

**Specialty: Shocking paws**

**Signature: Lightning jump**

**.**

**Gun-Nose: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Kenneth**

**Specialty: Rifle tactics**

**Signature: Gun-Gatling barrage**

**.**

**Sanjuuro: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Zoro**

**Specialty/Signature: Quickflash slash**

**.**

**Redlace: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Chidori**

**Specialty/Signature: Shot trap**

"Medabots, robattle!"

"All right boys," Samantha started, and then all together they finished off;

"Let's put the Screws to 'em!"

"Krosserdog, get up close and personal. Your rifle won't have any effect unless you're in their faces!"

"Peppercat, stay with Krosserdog and double team that Gun-Nose! Sloan, use Totalizer to keep the other two off our backs! If they get Sanjuuro to us we're toast!" Krosserdog and Peppercat sprinted towards Gun-Nose at full speed. Peppercat was trailing electricity along the way.

"Gun-Nose, missile launch!" Gun-Nose aimed his head canons at the duo and fired two rockets at them. Krosserdog just barely ducked underneath one, skidding on his knees with the missile whooshing overhead. Peppercat got hit in the stomach, the missile exploding instantly sending her flying into the 24-hour Hop mart.

"Peppercat, get up!" Samantha screamed with a touch of panic.

"Sanjuuro, now's your chance," Zoro said quietly. Sanjuuro seemed to almost teleport from where he was standing to right next to Krosserdog. He kicked Krosserdog hard in the face and while Krosserdog fell, he slammed his Hammer fist into Krosserdog's gut. Krosserdog crumpled to the floor, twitched twice and then lay still, whimpering like a wounded dog.

**Peppercat, Leg medaparts 60% damage. Right arm 40% damage.**

**Krosserdog Head medapart 70% damage. Legs 20% damage. Caution, all parts are non responsive.**

"We're just getting started, but it looks like your team is already finished," Chidori said with a grin.

"Not yet they're not, don't forget about me and Totalizer," Sloan butted in. "Now! Show them your true power Totalizer!" Totalizer aimed his huge beam canons at Sanjuuro. Two frighteningly large laser beams shot out of his canons. Sanjuuro tried to jump out of the way but the beams were already frying his circuits.

**Warning. Sanjuuro leg medaparts 100% damage. Function ceased.**

"Totalizer's beam canons are some of the strongest medaparts around. They make up for slow charge speed with power. Not even your seeker missiles can match up to them!" Chidori smiled.

"Interesting. So you think you can win because of one lucky shot huh? I think the babies need some time out!"

"Just shut up you hag!" Samantha yelled rudely. "We don't care what you think! Peppercat, lightning jump!" Peppercat picked herself up off the floor and charged at the Gun-Nose again.

"Gun-Gatling attack," Kenneth said. Gun-Nose's Gatling gun started rotating rapidly. Gun-Nose aimed at Peppercat and let loose a volley of laser bullets. Peppercat effortlessly stepped around them all. She flew around them all like a ballet dancer at times, obviously a few tricks from Samantha. "You, you you're really starting to tick me off," Kenneth snarled. "Gun-Nose, finish off the kitty with two seeker missiles!"

"Krosserdog, now!" Krosserdog grabbed Gun-Nose from behind in a Master lock.

"What?" Kenneth shouted incredulous.

"I told Krosserdog to play dead after getting hit so that you could focus on Peppercat and Totalizer, and then used them to make a come-back. I also got him to shut down and run on emergency power so that you would think he was done for. Once I could strike, BAM! Not much for strategy, but it works on guys who are over-confident, like you!" Samantha looked at Spyke and nodded her head.

_It looks like Spyke will actually do something good for once!_

"Totalizer, Tyranno laser!" Totalizer's visor started glowing bright green. Totalizer looked at Gun-Nose who was now desperately firing seeker missiles everywhere to get the monkey/dog off his back.

A huge V shaped laser beam shot out of Totalizer's visor and smashed into Gun-Nose. Krosserdog let go at the last second, but still got the burn of the beam. Both Gun-Nose and Krosserdog collapsed to the floor.

"Now, Peppercat, finish this off!" Peppercat dashed towards Gun-Nose with lightning streaming from her paws. Peppercat brought her open hand forward. A metallic crunch was heard across the battleground along with sparks crackling. Peppercats eyes widened as she saw the red butterfly, Redlace, blocking the attack without as much as a scratch.

"It looks like I have to join in too," Chidori said, resigned. "All right Redlace, go!" Redlace grabbed Peppercat's arm and tossed her into Krosserdog who was just getting up.

"Totalizer, fire at will!" Totalizer aimed his huge canons at Redlace.

"Redlace, disrupt them!" Redlace's arms shot out two tiny grenades. They clattered next to Totalizer and exploded, sending electricity everywhere. Totalizer ignored the lightning and fired. His canons swelled up and exploded right there on the spot, sending tiny pieces of shrapnel everywhere the way a grenade does.

**Right arm 100% damage. Functions ceased.**

**Left arm 95% damage.**

"Totalizer!" Bits and pieces of twisted metal lay scattered across the ground with melted wires inside them. "Wha-wha-wha-what just happened?" Sloan stammered. "What was that?"

"I dunno," Spyke said. His face was as pale as a sheet of paper. "But I don't want Krosserdog to be turned to a hot-dog. Take her out now before she messes with us!"

"Right boss," Krosserdog barked back as he got up again. _This time I've gotta aim. My Krosserdog parts are slightly weaker than the Cyandog ones I had, but the aim is way better. If I can just focus... _Krosserdog brought up his battle rifle and aimed at Redlace. _All right, here goes!_

"Redlace, disrupt him too!" Redlace's wrists folded back and shot out two hand grenades. Krosserdog fired just then, sending the two shots speeding towards Redlace. The grenade and rifle bullet met in the middle, sending sparks everywhere as the bullets pierced the grenades. The medawatches scrambled for a few seconds along with anything else electric. The two bullets kept going though, and drilled themselves hard into Redlace's shoulders.

**Redlace left arm critical. 100% damage. Functions ceased. Krosserdog right arm 50% damage.**

Krosserdog's arms started sparking up. He waved his arms around trying to stop it but ended up electrocuting his legs instead, sending him to the ground.

"Ahh, Krosserdog!" Spyke screamed.

"Sanjuuro, quick flash slash attack!" A blinding white light flashed through the air. The Screws covered their eyes from the blinding, all penetrating, light. When they looked again, Krosserdog's monkey medal was on the ground.

"No way, we didn't even here the medal eject," Samantha said, wide eyed. "We couldn't even see him move."

"You like it? A little 'trick of the light'," Zoro said with a tiny half smile. "All right Sanjuuro, round two,"

"Peppercat, stop him!" Peppercat yowled like a cat and with renewed energy, leaped towards Sanjuuro.

"Gun-Nose, Gun-Magnum attack," Kenny shouted into his medawatch.

"Totalizer, use the last of your left arm and intercept Gun-Nose," Sloan shouted. Totalizer, with some trouble, managed to pick up his left arm and aimed at Gun-Nose who was happily blasting away at Peppercat. Peppercat was fighting with Sanjuuro on equal grounds. None of the shots hit Peppercat, but a lot of them got close to Sanjuuro.

"Hey, careful!" Chidori screamed at Kenny.

"I don't see you fighting much," Kenneth shot back. Chidori shrugged her shoulders.

"Ah whatever. Redlace, disrupters!" Redlace shot the two grenades again.

"Peppercat, grab the EMP's and get rid of them. Toss them as far away as you can! As long as Totalizer's canons work, we've won!" Peppercat sprang forward to grab the grenades, but Sanjuuro grabbed her ankle and slammed her into the ground. The EMP's exploded exactly when Totalizer fired his beam canon. The beam went way off course, flying off to the sky. His left arm didn't even explode like last time. It quite simply sparked once or twice, and then went limp. The part darkened until the colours were a dull grey.

**Left arm 100% damage. Caution is advised.**

"Well boss, what now? They've got us outnumbered. Totalizer can't use his attacks without getting blown sky high and Peppercat can't fight Gun-Nose and Sanjuuro at the same time."

"I'm sorry boss," Spyke cut in. "I tried my best! Krosserdog just couldn't take anymore! I..."

"Shut up Spyke!" Samantha screamed. "You tried your best and that's it! A loss is a loss and you couldn't have lost any better! So suck it up! We haven't lost yet..."

_Wow, the boss can even make me feel good about losing, _Spyke thought to himself. _I'm glad to be a part of this gang! But now it's up to the boss and Sloan. Don't lose guys!_

"I've been struck by a brilliant wave of genius," Samantha declared.

"What is it boss?" Sloan asked, hope filling his always shut eyes.

"Sloan, get Totalizer right up close to Sanjuuro and then curl into defence mode."

"Ok boss, you hear her Totalizer, get to Sanjuuro. Redlace can't fight so ignore her and don't pay attention to Gun-Nose, even when he's chipping away your armour!"

"Right," Totalizer replied.

"It's Sink or Swim buddy."

"Right,"

"It's just like last year at the Championships. Either you break through their defences, or they tear you to pieces. It's all or nothing!"

"**Right!" **Totalizer shot forward at 20 miles per hour, pretty fast for a Tortoise type medabot. Gun-Nose blasted him with all three of his guns at once, but to no avail. Sanjuuro brought his sword back, preparing to fight.

"Not so fast," Peppercat growled, Peppercat pounced on Sanjuuro and grabbed his sword. While sending 1000v of electricity through his arm, she snapped the sword clean in half. The lightning finished off the job of shutting down his arm. Totalizer just kept coming until he was a few metres away. He popped most of the upper half of his body into his tank like legs, leaving out only his head and shoulders. His arms were twisted and tucked into his metallic shell as well. He kept going towards Sanjuuro.

"I see," Chidori said knowingly. "You used Totalizer's huge frame as a living battering ram. Gun-Nose isn't strong enough to stop something like that from crushing him so he has to avoid it. And then you broke Sanjuuro's sword so that he can't cut Totalizer in half with the quick flash. Then for good measure, you made Peppercat pin Sanjuuro down so that he can't escape. After all, what are one of Peppercat's arms and Totalizer's legs, to Sanjuuro's whole body? Just to finish off, you let Totalizer's arms break so that they could dislocate and easily fit inside his shell, something Totalizer isn't designed to do. I admit, you're all stronger than I thought. Too bad you didn't think about this though!"

Sanjuuro managed to free his left arm from Peppercat's grasp and faced the rolling Turtle-tank. He brought up his fist and sent it crashing into Totalizer's exposed head. Totalizer's neck snapped back with a loose wire escaping somewhere. His legs lifted off of the floor. His head darkened. For an unknown moment, time stayed still, Totalizer hanging in the air with a fist in his face. Everyone held their breath in, not wanting to disturb the warrior moment. Then, time flowed.

**100% damage. Functions ceased.**

Totalizer bounced backwards three times on the ground, his head dragging on the floor at 10 miles per hour before twisting in the air and landing on his side, rolling sideways until he came to a standstill against a street light.

"No, Totalizer," Sloan said before lowering his head. Samantha looked back at the gang. Gun-Nose aimed his Gatling gun at Peppercat and peppered her with laser bullets. Peppercat just barely escaped intact before Redlace grabbed Peppercat behind her back so that her belly stuck out. Sanjuuro shot towards Peppercat with his hammer fist held behind him preparing to punch.

"Close call. You nearly had us there, but Totalizer isn't meant to do that. He might be a Turtle, but his parts can't fit inside his shell. If you're going to try that move again, make sure you cover his head as well as his stomach. You never had a chance with such amateur tactics! I guess we'll be taking those medals of yours now!"

_These guys are good, _Samantha thought to herself._ I can't take out the whole team without sacrificing Peppercat's body. Peppercat can handle Gun-Nose because his huge weapons slow him down. Its aim also isn't up to scratch. Redlace's weapons aren't effective enough to scramble Peppercat's lightning but Sanjuuro's fist is way too scary. If I could only..._

"Transport, Metal Beetle!" Everyone turned their heads to see who shouted out. A ball of electricity crackled in front of Henry. An old KBT type medabot appeared in front of them.

**Metal-Beetle: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Henry**

**Specialty: Rifle tactics**

**Signature: Seeker Missiles**

He looked almost exactly like Kantaroth or Metabee's old body. He was more like a combination of the both of them. He was blockier than Metabee, but smoother than Kantaroth. The black extensions on his shoulders had a yellow dot painted on each one and he was a darker shade of yellow. Henry was holding a phone up to his face.

**Thank you for downloading the medawatch application. Enjoy!**

"All right Metabee, we're stopping this right now," Henry shouted with a glint in his eyes.

"You cannot interfere with an official robattle!" Mr Referee opposed.

"What's more important, the medals that will be lost or the rules?" Henry yelled back.

"The medals, but rules must be followed!"

"Fine then, if I join the Screws it's legal, right?"

"I suppose you could call it a team robattle so..."

"Right, Samantha, I join!"

"What?" Samantha screamed.

"But now it's four on one!"

"Only three medawatches allowed?"

"Yes," Mr Referee said.

"Alright, Spyke, toss me your medawatch," Henry demanded. Spyke hastily unstrapped his medawatch and tossed it towards Henry. Henry caught it and strapped it around his phone which he could use as a medawatch. "Anything left to say now?" Mr Referee just smiled slightly.

_He's really grown up from before, but he still acts like the same. Now I think of it, he was a lot like Ikki!_ Henry brought the phone up to his face.

"Meta-bee, charge in and blast that phony! Gun-Nose can't beat us!" Meta-bee's parts creaked as if they hadn't been oiled in years as he moved his stiff joints. He looked at Gun-Nose and in flash, started off at a sprint.

"Stop it! Kenny, do something," Chidori squealed.

"Tch, that thing's G, it can't harm Gun-Nose," Kenny complacently replied. Gun-Nose brought up his Gatling gun and sprayed Meta-bee with bullets. The shells harmlessly bounced off of Meta-bee's body. "What? What kind of armour does it have? Yo, use the Gun-Missile!" Gun-Nose aimed his huge horns at Meta-bee and sent two green and red missiles at him. His horns looked like they exploded as Gun-Nose's head was concealed in a cloud of smoke. The two rockets swerved around the car park crazily before finding its target.

"Meta-bee, charge forty percent meda-energy and prepare yourself." Meta-bee momentarily flashed green before the missiles reached him. They flew right towards his open hand... and just stopped there. Meta-bee held the weapons in between his fingers as if he had just caught a ball.

"What the... He caught the seeker missiles! I repeat: _he caught the seeker missiles!" _Zoro looked away from the battlefield, knowing he had lost already and Chidori's mouth opened wide in disbelief. Henry just smiled.

"You can't hope to beat us like that," Henry said with a small half smile. "All right Meta-bee, show them who's boss!" Meta-bee started off again. Gun-Nose started firing his huge rifle again, each time never hitting his target. Meta-bee sidestepped each one easily. Sanjuuro stepped in front of Gun-Nose, trying to protect him. "Meta-bee, toss rocket number one!" Meta-bee jumped ten feet into the air and tossed one of the missiles at Sanjuuro. Sanjuuro just barely managed to cover his face before the missile exploded on his arms. Damage points kept adding up on Zoro's medawatch.

**20% damage. Chain reaction, 20% damage. Chain reaction, 20% damage...**

"Why won't it stop? That missile was Gun-Nose's right? His missiles were never that strong, so why is it so devastating now?" Zoro stared hard at Meta-bee who had tossed the second missile at Redlace. _This guy isn't a normal medafighter, _he thought to himself. Henry was busy making idiotic poses as if he was some kind of superhero.

"All right, time for the finisher. Behold the power of the sun! The pillar of fire! It's... the Prominence!" Everyone looked at him with a confused expression. Henry looked around him. "What? What did I say?" Even his Meta-bee looked back at him.

"Henry? Are you alright?" Meta-bee asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"What's wrong? Oh no! I-I-I-I mean the seeker missiles! Not the Prominence. I mean, what was I thinking, heh-heh, the Prominence? I was, uh, um, trying to be like Space Medafighter X! Yeah, he's my hero! Use the, uh, super charged, um, thingy. The, eh, Galactic attack! The seeker missiles!" Meta-bee's eyes half closed in a look that said _you can't be serious..._

Meta-bee turned towards Gun-Nose who was shooting more Gatling bullets at him. He shot two missiles out of his horns almost lazily. They sailed towards Gun-Nose and struck true. Everybody heard the clatter of a medal hitting the pavement.

**Gun-Nose, functions ceased. Redlace, functions ceased. Sanjuuro paralysed with fear. Unable to safely continue.**

"The leader of the team, Redlace's functions have ceased! The winner is, Peppercat, Krosserdog, Totalizer and Metal Beetle!" Henry exhaled the breath he had been holding.

_That was way too close for comfort. I hope that was the right thing to do. What about the store..._

"_Ahhh! My store!" _There were potholes in the pavement in seemingly random places and a few bins were upturned with the garbage spilling out of it. The actual store had cracks all over it and had graffiti written _Team Fiyun rock!_ Next to it was a Peppercat shaped dent in the wall "Aw man, the boss will have a cow when he sees this! Noooooo!"

Samantha walked towards the boss of Team Fiyun.

"Alright, now that you know who we are, scram! And tell everyone you know to fear us!"

"Whatever. It's not like you even did anything."

"What?" Samantha exclaimed.

"It was all that nerd's work. You were on the brink of defeat!"

"That's just because you didn't have the time to see Peppercat's ultimate technique! The one I'd been working on!"

"Eh, I guess I might as well spill the beans as to why I'm here in the first place. Do you want a hint?" Chidori glared at Samantha. "After all, you _are _the boss." Samantha stared right back.

"I'm not scared of you!"

"You will be when you look up," Chidori said pointing to the sky. Samantha looked up and instantly froze to the spot. Even the bead of sweat was too scared to drop to the ground.

"What's wrong boss?" Spyke asked, not seeing it yet. Samantha couldn't beleive she hadn't noticed it earlier. She couldn't beleive Spyke hadn't noticed it. She couldn't move anymore. She needed to run but she was rooted to the floor.

"Spyke... RUN!"

**It just has to end there doesn't it? But the show must go on! R 'n R, Read and review, whatever you must call it! My goal is to write the best fic possible, but I need reviews to know. Until next time people!**

**If any of you have ideas for medafighters you want included in this story, PM their appearance, medabots, and personality. Their background (If you want) and anything else. I want to include other people in the making of this fic. PM me your medafighter ASAP. You'll see why!**

**More Medabots, more power!**


	7. Rise, the Underdog! Last hope showdown!

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Medabots anime, games, manga or toys etc. However, I do own Roadrunner, Windstorm, Chidori, Zoro, Kenneth, and the weird blue haired kid. Medafighters ready?**

**You've gotta fight for your right to robattle!**

_Mr Referee: Last chapter of Robotournament, Ikki was revealed to be the victor in the match versus Zorin_

_Metabee: That's right! I mixed him up! I'm the definition of awesome! And if you still don't understand; __**I rock!**_

_Windstorm: Shut it Tin-can, he's trying to speak._

_Metabee: This stuff at the beginning and end of episodes was my job, not his!_

_Mr Referee: Only because I was away! I've been doing this for years! Me! Mr Referee!_

_Ikki: Metabee, hurry up and let's go! That kid was gonna tell us why he does his stuff!_

_Metabee: And give away his horns!_

_?: No I'm not giving away Zorin's horns._

_Metabee: What? I'll __**make **__you give me those parts!_

_Zorin: My broad antennae are like a part of me. We've been through a lot. It's like trying to take the shell off of a Hermit crab. The shell is his home. It may not actually be attached to him, but it's closer to his heart than the blood pumping in his veins. It is his precious treasure._

_Metabee: Whoa, that's deep._

_?: He doesn't talk much so this is also a surprise to me._

_Mr Referee: Eh-em, You're wasting precious time and space, unless you want to meet penalty box I suggest you leave, quickly!_

_?: Who's penalty box? Hey, where'd everyone go? Why am I suddenly alone? What's with that star in the sky? Is that a medabot? Wait, no! AAAAAAAA!_

_Me: ... I think that dart killed him..._

_?: I'm... still... alive... *gasp* (faint on the spot)_

_Mr Referee: Back to my part. Ikki managed to win the rematch with the kid. The kid promised to tell Ikki why he did what he did as part of the reward for winning. Meanwhile, at the 24-hour Hop Mart, a gang of teenagers known as Team Fiyun attempted to take over 'Screws gang' property. They were looking for Space Medafighter X who has mysteriously disappeared. If nobody strong showed up soon, they would take everyone's medals. The Screws appeared led by Samantha and challenged Team Fiyun. The Screws put up a valiant effort, but in the end, the resistance was futile. In a move of desperation, Henry joined the Screws gang so that he could robattle and save them. He used KBT-0, Metal-Beetle and destroyed them almost without trying. Team Fiyun ended saying, 'you will be scared once you look up' Samantha suddenly became frozen in a gripping fear of the likes we have not seen before. What are these teenagers up to? What's the deal with the kid? Why did Samantha freeze up? Why am I refereeing again after so long of silence? Will these questions be answered?_

The street was battle scarred and torn to pieces from the previous battle. Lampposts were snapped in half and traffic lights were cracked and shattered. A few buildings were chipped and dented and a car was crunched up like a can. Ikki picked Metabee up from a huge crater in the ground, so that Metabee was just barely standing, and walked towards Windstorm. He found her alien medal and put it into his left medawatch.

"Hey, Windstorm? Are you there? Windstorm?" The watch remained dead, no sound coming out of it. Ikki frowned. _That's weird. Her medal is in correctly, so why isn't it working?_ Windstorm remained silent. A faint, croaking noise came from the medawatch. "Huh? Is that you? I can't here you clearly." Ikki put his ear to the medawatch. This time, more loudly, a faint voice was heard.

"Just let me rest. I need a vacation. I need a manicure, a pedicure, and a serious tune up. Just let me rest." Ikki visibly exhaled the breath he didn't notice he'd been holding. She was still alive, and she wasn't too damaged. That was all that mattered. He grabbed Windstorm's parts and tossed them over his shoulder. Even with the self repairing nano-machines inside the parts, they weren't going to repair enough to let a medal inside. Ikki turned and faced the blue haired kid.

"Well, why are you here anyway? You obviously didn't come just to robattle everyone in sight, so why?" The blue haired kid looked at his medawatch, checking the time.

"Ok, I'll make this short, but you should really sit down for this," He said, looking away from Ikki with disregard. Metabee sat down on a rock, exhausted, while Ikki just stayed standing up. The blue haired kid shrugged his shoulders and continued. "I'm pretty sure you already know that medabots weren't invented by human's right? Or that at least the medals weren't."

"Yeah. Nearly all of the rare medals were made by the medarolli people, an ancient civilization that were all technologically advanced and physically superior to humans. They were all warriors of some sort until they ended up destroying themselves with all of the violence and wars that broke out as a result of their aggressive behaviour. A massive war between two different factions. The last of them placed what was left of their personalities in a bunch of 'medals' in the hopes that some other sentient beings might revive them. These medals were found by humans and remade into the medabots we use today."

"Yup, that's pretty much it. A lot of the designs for parts were even taken by humans who found plans for them in old ruins. The first KBT and KWG types were inspired by drawings of them in temples."

"Those were KBT-0, Metal Beetle, and KWG-0, Twin-Scissors," Ikki cut in.

"So obviously these guys had a lot more technology then we think, right?"

"I guess so..."

"But that's not important. The fact is that medabots can only become as strong as the medals people have found before. Most rare medals are found in battered and bruised condition, unable to be used. These are all cloned to create ordinary medals. It's never cloned exactly, even if scientists wanted to make an exact clone. These are ordinary medals. Sometimes however, the rare medals are intact, or they are accidentally cloned exactly, like Metabee's. In Rokusho's case, Dr Hushi actually managed to get an exact clone, making his the first medal."

"It was then cloned again to make Zuru's Roks, making him also classed as a 'first medal' we get it," Ikki interrupted. "What does that have to do with finding strong medafighters though?"

"Right. Well my boss sent me here to try and find a very special type of medal. Not any old rare medal. For..."

"**Medaforce!" **The earth began shaking with magnitude 10 earthquakes, but everything stayed in perfect condition. The air became thick as if it was dripping with honey and Ikki couldn't even move his eyelids. An ice cold bead of sweat dripped down his brow. He felt like he was thousands of feet under the water, and the pressure on his chest was almost unbearable. A purple haze covered his vision and his hearing was completely blocked off by a noise like a thousand trains passing through his brains.

_What? What is this? I can't move an inch! Why's everything purple? What's with the noise? What is this? Metabee!_

Ikki tried opening his mouth to scream Metabee's name, but no sound came out. He tried turning his head to look at Metabee. A searing pain passed through his spine as he moved at a snail pace, but he wouldn't stop yet. With a final soundless scream of pain, he jerked his head towards Metabee. Under the haze, he looked awkward, purplish and blue, not moving, but seeming to flicker like a candle. Everything flickered like a candle. His now blue eyes were wide with fear. They looked almost bigger than his head. _This is bad, bad, bad! I've gotta get out of here! I don't know what's going on but I have to run! _The purple haze turned orange and black lines seemed to be streaking upwards in the air. The sweat on Ikki's face finally dropped, hovered in the air, and then flew up to the sky. _What's going on?_

Ikki swayed from side to side before collapsing on the floor at unbelievably slow speeds. Ikki just managed to turn his head up to face the sky. His pupils dilated from the shock of what he saw. His mouth suddenly became dry.

_I have to escape, I have to escape, I have to escape, I have to escape... _Ikki shook his head, not believing it. The sky appeared to be cracking. Massive jagged lines passed straight through it, showing expensive machinery inside it. One of the shards broke loose from the rest of the sky, opening a vacuum, sucking all of the clouds and birds into it. A passing biplane flipped over in the sky and broke in half. It began floating into the crack, bits of the wings and engines flying off of it in the process. The pilot was seen jumping out, and somehow falling upwards into the crack along with his plane. He disappeared behind the sky shard, possibly to never be seen again. The shard of sky fell lower down, the image of clouds on it changing to machinery as it proved to be a flying saucer. It looked a lot like the World Robattle Stadium did when it was equipped to fly. A massive panel opened up and scores upon scores of medabots streamed out of it. There were at least forty Mega-Emperors jumping out, sixty Robo-Emperors, a whole fleet of flying medabots, huge numbers of Belzelgas and massive amounts of Air-Pteras. But that wasn't even the scariest thing in the skies. Ikki had seen similar sights in movies. What had practically crippled his nerves was the thing closer to the ground. The section of 'sky' he had seen was only a small fraction of what was happening. It was only a small patch of the sky. The rest was blocked out by what looked like a two storey high, laughing, flaming skull with snakes coming out of cracks in its head and the eye sockets. There were about three more of these skull monsters.

Behind them all, commanding them, was a larger than life flying saucer with a giant medal showing through the underside of it. The medal was covered in a glass case. The picture on it looked similar to a bat, or one of Batman's batarangs. The centre of the medal contained a massive purple medalias gem. The medalias glowed with an unearthly glow, releasing more of the skulls. Ikki covered his mouth, afraid he might just vomit and he thought he was about to wet himself. One of the skulls opened its massive jaws and spat out a whole myriad of smaller flaming skulls **(sorry, I don't know the plural for some undead skulls. A group? A troop? An army? Myriad was the best word I could find)**. A few pedestrians were running away in terror, but they looked like they were moving in slow motion. Even the police and medafighters who had medabots were too scared to fight them. One or two kilobits stepped forward to battle. Kilobots, having no emotions or sensible thought, they literally knew no fear. A large red kilobot with big bulky wings stepped forward. It looked like it had a knight helmet on and its fists were covered in a bulky glove.

**Redrun: Extreme Tech**

**Medafighter: Banjo**

**Specialty: Widespread destruction**

**Signature: Redrum Murder**

Redrun jumped up into the myriad of skulls, his left fist brought behind him. He smashed his fist into the face of a skull, despite skulls being all face. It fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. Whatever was slowing everybody down obviously wasn't affecting Redrun. Redrun dropped to the floor, cracking the pavement, but was quickly engulfed by one of the massive skulls. It clamped down its giant jaws on the lone Kilobot and disappeared inside. The other tiny skulls swarmed into the streets like locusts, destroying everything in their path. The massive skull appeared to be chewing. A tiny line showed itself in the back of its head. The line spread into a huge crack. Suddenly, the crack exploded outwards as Redrun smashed his fist outside. The skull shrieked an unearthly cry before collapsing on the floor. Redrun stepped outside and glared up at the huge flying saucer in the sky.

"_**Worthy opponent." **_Redrun's machinery started whirring angrily and his knight helmet visor lifted up, opening to reveal it looked way more like a mouth with teeth than a mask. The evil mouth continued to open wider until you could see its eyes inside the mouth. His medafighter ran out from behind cover.

"Redrun, get outta there! Don't fight! You might just be another Kilobot, but I can't bear to see you get destroyed!" The boy had dark brown eyes, almost red if you looked carefully, and his black hair was messy and unkempt. He had simple brown shorts on and a black shirt with a blue jacket with rolled up sleeves on top. He grabbed Redrun and shook him. "Redrun, I order you to stop now! We have to go!" Redrun turned towards him and with no apparent emotion, shook his head.

"Negative. Worthy opponent located. Primary function; locate and destroy worthy opponents."

"What? Oh no, you've glitched up again haven't you?"

"Command not recognized."

"I knew you'd say that. Kilobots aren't that bright are they?"

"Command not recognized."

"Darn!" The boy turned towards Ikki who was struggling to get up. Ikki was right underneath the massive skulls and was obviously most effected from whatever they were doing. Ikki tried to smile.

"B-Banjo. Long time no see. I'm never gonna get over your ridiculous name."

"Shut it Tenryou! Do you see those things? Nothing we do can even touch them! Our only chance is to run but Redrun won't listen. I can't leave him. I have a duty to keep him safe until his warranty expires." Ikki actually smiled.

"Banjo, you're actually starting to like your medabot aren't you?"

"NO! I just robattle to win. Don't ever forget it. I never lose!" Banjo tugged Redrun one last time before resigning. "Alright you piece of junk, you win. I guess I'll have to robattle. The Select corps have been fighting for a while now, and we can't leave them on their own. You gonna lend a hand?"

"I would, but Metabee's taken too much for him to continue. I can't use Windstorm either. She's even worse."

"Windstorm? Who's that?"

"Never mind. The point is that I can't robattle." Banjo shrugged his shoulders.

"Suit yourself. Alright Redrun, it's time to get serious. Jump onto the massive skulls up in the sky and prepare to attack!" Redrun's medaparts creaked and his inner machinery began whirring loudly. A noise like a car engine started up inside him. He shot towards the sky and his metal wings spread wide. They wouldn't help him fly as they were so heavy, but they would let him glide where he wanted. He landed on the first skull with a crash, cracking it in the process. An army of Totalizer's landed as well, all of them from the enemy ship. Redrun sprinted towards one of them and smashed its face in. All of the other Totalizers fired their lasers at Redrun, but Redrun jumped clear from all of them. Banjo gritted his teeth.

"Why can't they leave me alone? Redrun, action mode!" Redrun opened his mouth wide in a fearsome roar and his eyes glowed a bright orange inside his mouth. The very ground began shaking and the Totalizer he was looking at flew off of the skull and landed in the road with a crash. Redrun fell onto another Totalizer and wacked five others away with a backhand slap. Finally he transformed onto four legs and jumped into a crowd of medabots, tearing them to pieces with his claws and teeth. Twenty medabots went flying off the battlefield, into the flying saucer, barely denting it as they made an impact.

"You're Redrun's as scary as ever," Ikki commented, just barely getting the sound past his teeth.

"You bet. Not even those things can match him in battle!" Redrun's eyes flashed in his mouth as he let out another roar, the Shockwaves blowing every other medabot off the skull. The skull started cackling and tossed his head/body up, throwing Redrun into the sky. It opened its mouth wide and showered Redrun with a torrent of crackling, sizzling flames. Redrun shielded his face before being consumed by the blast. The fire twisted around his frame as he disappeared inside the fire. Statistics beeped on about the damage being dealt to Redrun.

**Warning. 100% damage to leg and right arm parts. Functions ceased. Chain reaction, 72% damage to head medapart. Warning, mobility decreased. Action mode deactivated. Caution is advised.**

"Darn, this isn't looking good for me," Banjo looked down towards Ikki. "Hey, get up! You could get injured from there! If you've never noticed, everybody's in danger and you're right in the middle of it!" Ikki snapped out of his haze as the air cleared of its haze. It felt as if a fog had been lifted from his mind as he could suddenly think again. Everybody had cleared out of the area already and it was just him and Banshou. Redrun was somewhere inside the monster skull and Metabee still couldn't move. Ikki couldn't wake up Windstorm after the last fight. The Select Corps were finally defending again, but they were losing badly. An Air-Pteras fell from the sky along with a fighter jet. They crashed into a small shop, destroying everything inside it. A third jet flew sideways over Ikki's head, screeching the whole way like a banshee until it exploded on the pavement.

Ikki scrambled to his feet and grabbed Metabee who was still stunned, unable to move. Banjo grabbed Windstorm's parts and shouted a terse command into his medawatch. The skull that swallowed Redrun shook violently before exploding, sending broken medaparts and bone across the street. Redrun fell out from it and landed in the ground, smashing the tarmac on impact. He limped after his master as they ran away from the fighting to the medabot corporation.

. . .

"Spyke... RUN!" Samantha screamed at her partner. "SLOAN, YOU TOO! GET OUT!" three large medabots fell from the sky, smashing the ground to pieces. All three of them were yellow and green with two antennaes sticking out from their heads. Electricity crackled and arced between the two antennae. They were each at least twice the size of a tall human, possibly three-and-a-half metres tall. They almost looked like a walking arsenal. A massive missile launching gun on the right arm with six missiles slotted neatly in the massive barrel was on all of them. Their left arms were huge laser canons with three barrel holes, each hole about the size of someone's head. Their legs looked like a large caterpillar, being heavily armoured with a huge tail. It was almost like a giant foot. The tank/caterpillar like legs had tiny toes all around the edges, swivelling around to make it move. The toes had holes in them and looked almost like they would shoot lasers out of them. The medabots were panelled all over and looked like weapons were hidden inside. Medawatches urgently beeped out information.

**Mega-Emperors 1 2 & 3: Dr Armond's workshop**

**Medafighter: Unknown**

**Specialty: Mass destruction**

**Signature: Fatal Death-Break barrage**

Samantha ran towards Peppercat and shook her awake. Peppercat's eyes flashed open before she noticed the danger.

"Samantha, was that always there?"

"I don't know but we won't be here unless we run!" They scrambled to their feet and sprinted away from the three monsters. The large medafighter, Kenneth, blocked the way they were going along with Gun-Nose.

"Ah-ah, you think you can run?" Samantha's eyes widened with fear as she saw three huge laser beams blasting over her head, singeing the top of her hair despite the beams being fifty metres away.

"Move you big dope! That thing's gonna kill us all!"

"Not us, you!"

"Do you even know what that is? That's Mega-Emperor! The most powerful medabot in existence! It's designed to destroy everything that moves, including the people that deployed it! Unless you wanna make friends with it, RUN!" Kenneth gave Samantha a grin.

"It can't touch us. Though, I don't know about you guys!" Samantha tried stepping around him but was blocked by Gun-Nose.

"Spyke, get him..." Spyke was already gone, nothing but dust in the distance. Samantha slapped her forhead. "You've got to be kidding me... Sloan, get him!" Sloan ran at his slow pace and rammed into the large teenager, knocking the wind out of his lungs. The larger teenager grabbed Sloan by the shoulders and tossed him into a nearby trashcan. The cans clattered noisily as the rubbish inside spilled all over him. Samantha went behind the teenager and jumped on his back, choking him with her arm while biting his shoulder. In between bites she choked out a few words.

"Leave... my... team... a... lone!" She got him with an extra powerful bite, ripping through the clothes and skin. Kenneth picked her off of his back and threw her like a doll into the store.

"I don't like fighting, I robattle. Don't bother fight me when those thing's are still loose." All three Mega-Emperors trained blue laser lights on Samantha and Sloan. Sloan ran over to where Totalizer had fallen and placed the medal into the medabot's back. Totalizer's visor flashed green, looked at the enemy's and turned off again.

"What? Totalizer, what's wrong?" Sloan asked.

"I won't robattle those things, no way!" Totalizer's medal ejected again. Sloan placed it back inside.

"C'mon buddy, we're all gonna die unless you do!" Sloan looked up at the Mega-Emperors who's guns were glowing red, about to fire, Sloan grabbed Totalizer and ducked behind a car where Samantha and Peppercat had already hidden. All nine lasers fired, disintegrating the car in a few seconds just barely leaving the people behind them intact. Totalizer stared up at the Mega-Emperors out in the open with his medafighters.

"Boss, are we gonna make it outta here?" Totalizer asked as they aimed their huge rockets at him.

"Totalizer, get ready to blast the missiles!" eighteen missiles flew out of the Mega-Emperor's canons. Totalizer brought up his badly damaged left laser canon and fired a massive blue energy beam, dragging it around the sky blowing up all the enemy projectiles. Missiles exploded like fireworks, lightning up the area which had suddenly gotten darker.

"Peppercat, lightning jump!" Peppercat's arms sparked up with lightning as she ran towards the leading Mega-Emperor. A barrage of missiles assailed her, but she gracefully dived over all of them. Two violent rockets scraped her leg gently, but it was enough to set them off in a massive mushroom cloud explosion. Dirt flew into the sky with a bone jarring bang. Peppercat emerged out of the dust, paws sparking and lightning zapping wildly everywhere in a rage. Peppercat latched onto the lead Mega-Emperor and electrocuted his head, sending thousands of volts of electricity rushing through him, shutting down major systems.

**Mega-Emperor1 paralyzed. Regeneration process activated. Rebooting.**

"Peppercat, next one!" Peppercat jumped off of him and ran to the next one.

"Totalizer, give the boss a hand," Sloan commanded. Totalizer reluctantly stepped towards Peppercat's side and aimed his canons at Mega-Emperor.

"_**Assuming attack positions," **_A Mega-Emperor shouted in a deep menacing voice. _**"Launching death-break attack!" **_The antennaes on the two functioning Mega-Emperors sparked with lightning. Mega-Emperor number two shot out a dump-truck sized electricity ball from his antennae while the third blasted out a massive blue laser from his. The ground they were travelling over was completely incinerated, leaving the ground to be black and charred. The electric ball crushed Totalizer, sending sparks flying in all directions. The beam swept across the field, finishing off the job, and that was the end of him.

**200% damage to arm medaparts. 50% damage to leg medaparts. Damage absorbed by Tortoise shell. 99% damage to head medaparts.**

Peppercat jumped towards the third Mega-Emperor in a frenzy before another electric ball was launched from the second one. Peppercat was sent flying into the sky and crashed into the neighbouring building, toppling the whole thing over.

**Warning. Gravity plus activated. Peppercat at triple weight. All medaparts 80% damage.**

"Boss, this isn't working!" Sloan cried looking at the disfigured Totalizer. His arms were burnt to a crisp, showing the inner workings and machinery inside, most of which was destroyed.

"I know it isn't," She yelled back. "We don't have enough fire power to fight and win, but we can't run away now that they're fully activated. They'd just gun us down!"

"This is getting out of hand," Zoro said. The three gang members had been watching the whole time, hiding inside the 24 hour Hop-mart. Zoro was busy repairing Sanjuuro while Chidori was doing her nails. Ken was also inside with Gun-Nose who was lazily reading a magazine. "Look at them. They could actually get killed by the Mega-Emperor."

"Not my problem," Chidori said.

"But we're not murderers," Zoro objected.

"We're not stupid either," Kenneth replied. "You think you're funny, challenging that thing. You wouldn't last a minute."

"But we would! We could turn the tide of the whole battle!"

"Just leave 'em at it," Chidori reassured. "They're getting backup already."

. . .

"Meta-bee, get in there!" Henry yelled into his phone. Metal Beetle's eyes flashed bright white, the standard colour for most KBT-0 up to KBT-50. Ikki's Metabee model is the exception. Metabee ran towards Mega-Emperor 1 who had rebooted and was moving. "Meta-bee, send the seeker missiles to his head, same spot as where Peppercat hit!" Meta-bee jumped in the sky and sent two mad seeker missiles spiralling to Mega-Emperor 1. Mega-Emperor's antennas sparked and sent out a blue laser beam slicing through the air, destroying the missiles in a puff of smoke.

Metabee assailed Mega-Emperor with a barrage of machinegun bullets, but they all bounced off him harmlessly. The other two Mega-Emperor's slowly crawled to the leader's side and all fired all nine of their lasers at ounce. Meta-bee disappeared in a cloud of smoke as the lasers crashed into, and around him.

**Warning, Leg medaparts 100% damage, functions ceased.**

_Darn it, _Henry thought to himself. _This is even harder than when I first faced him years ago. I guess Metal Beetle isn't what he used to be. I really wish that Arcbeetle's parts were here. He'd love to be in his usual body. Maybe I can pull out his medal again? It worked last time, but man did it leave a scar!_

Samantha stared at the broken down tower Peppercat's body had been slammed into. She couldn't believe that Peppercat was still alive. But she knew there was no way she could keep fighting.

_This thing's a monster! _Samantha thought. _Is it even a medabot if it can do this? No. Of course not. It's a WPN type. A weapon type. He's a living arsenal. How did Ikki, Koji and Space Medafighter X even lay a dent in it? How did they beat it? We need more people but with this kind of chaos, everyone will be fighting in other places. We're on our own..._

_. . ._

Spyke and Krosserdog were resting against a tree, hiding from all the rougue medabots.

"Hey Krossedog, I can't believe we actually made it out of there! Those medabots would have totally creamed us!" Krosserdog, whose medal had been reinserted, looked up at his medafighter.

"You said it boss, I'm still not as strong as Peppercat or Metabee,"

"Yeah, and I don't wanna lose you in a robattle we could have avoided!"

"But boss, Sloan and Samantha are still fighting there for the whole town. Even Henry is robattling. We can't just run away now!"

"Aw don't worry, they'll handle it!"

"But boss, Ikki said they only got lucky when beating one Mega-Emperor, there are three of them!"

"Um... Samantha's tough. She can take 'em!"

"Boss, are you running away?"

"Uhh, well I can't fight them! I'd only slow Samantha down! Sloan is better off with her!"

"But Totalizer's damaged! He can't take another beating!"

"What about the move the Boss was working on?"

"Spyke, I don't think she's working on any secret technique."

"Well I can't fight! I'm just a defeated dog! This is the first robattle in nine months that I've won and we had to get help from Henry of all people! I didn't even know he was that strong!"

"Even the underdogs can rise up like a wolf when they have to! I might just be a medabot, but I know with all my core, processors, hard drives, and my medal, that we can't let our hometown be destroyed because we were scaredy-cats! Yes, I said it, the scaredy-cat dogs! It's too late to run away know! Everyone's counting on us. Even Ikki and Metabee!

"Krosserdog, I care for both our lives way too much. I order you to retreat!"

"No! I'm a dog type medabot, and I listen to you on every order, but my obedience to our home, our friends, and myself, are right now far greater! If you won't go, then I'll fight them myself!" Spyke looked at Krosserdog. He was glowing orange all over with arcs of electricity spiralling around him. The sky turned midnight dark as if the power blocked out the light from the blazing sun. In the shadows that appeared unnaturally over Krosserdog, Spyke could see a great golden ape roaring.

"Krosserdog..."

"It's deciding time Spyke! Will you run to see another day, always regretting the loss and destruction you could've avoided, never truly moving on from the cowardly past, always only truly living in your dreams? Or are you going to take a stand and bite back, be the guard dog defending everything you know, and your pride?" Spyke started tearing.

_Krosserdog's never disobeyed an order before. If he is, then I have to have really screwed up. It looks like I have to trust the dog in me and follow my instincts. This is the first time I've done this, listening to my instincts, so I don't know if it's the best choice, but I've got to save Samantha!_

"Alright Krosserdog, it's time to prove to the boss who's boss! We're gonna fight, and this time, we're gonna fight to win! And I know just how to do it!"

"Great job boss!"

"Not even Mega-Emperor can stop us! We're like a howling whirlwind now! I think I get how Ikki and Metabee are so strong now... It's all because... Because..."

. . .

Ikki and Banjo ran along with Redrun, Metabee and Windstorm's parts under Metabee's arm.

"Hey, Banjo," Ikki started. "How come you tried to save Redrun, even though he's a Kilobot? I thought you never cared!"

"It's because, even though Redrun is a Kilobot, he's my partner. Not my friend, my partner! I can't lose and neither should my partner. We're a two man team."

"Don't lie," Metabee said from his medawatch. "You two are homies aren't you? You saved him because you care!"

"No I don't," Banjo yelled back.

"No, but you should," An unknown answered back. The trio stopped dead in their tracks.

Ikki smiled knowingly.

"Of all the people to appear at a time like this, you two! And such a weird mix!" Two lone shadows stood in the streets, the sunset to their backs, showing up like the Heroes of the story.

**More Medabots, more Power!**


	8. Medafighters Forever! Spirit!

**Hey people! And we're coming to the epic conclusion of the invasion arc and mystery medafighters! But as for the whole story and the challenges yet to come... they're only just beginning!**

**Chapter 8: Medafighters forever! Show us your spirit!**

"Of all the people to appear at a time like this, you two! And such a weird mix!" Two lone shadows stood in the streets, the sunset to their backs, showing up like the Heroes of the story.

"Well, we are the ones saving you guys," One of them answered, seeing the mob of medabots chasing them.

"We can save ourselves," Banjo rudely answered. "I told you, I don't lose, not to rouge medabots, not to Ikki, and definitely not to you!"

"Redrun seems to be thinking otherwise," The newcomer answered back, looking at the tattered Redrun. He wasn't beaten down enough to stop moving, but he wouldn't take too much more damage. His fists seemed like they were cracked and another punch would completely wreck them. His eyes still seemed to be searching for blood though. He kept looking in the direction of the largest flying saucer, as if he still wanted to fight it.

"Redrun, are you ok?" Banjo asked.

"**Worthy opponent," **He replied, staring intently at the enemies behind him.

"I see he's still got energy," the same stranger answered. The other one who was quiet just stared at Redrun, his jaw dropped to the floor in awe.

"Dude... That is so awesome!" He yelled! "Dude, it's a Redrun, A.K.A, the revenge blossom, Blossomail! The strongest of all DVL types! It's punches make Belzelga's look like a joke and it can overturn cars with its pinkie finger! That guy's so totally cool! It's number one! Even Ikki runs away from him!"

"Hey, watch it," Ikki snarled.

"Well it's true, right Ikki?"

"You're here to help us, right? Get helping!" The stranger ignored him and kept talking.

"I bet only Hikaru Agata could beat it one-on-one!"

"Shut up! You two, get ready!"

"Right," both newcomers shouted. Windstorm spoke up from Ikki's medawatch in a croaky, drained voice.

"Sorry, who are you guys?" The first one smiled while the second one's jaw dropped.

"You mean you don't know who I am? And Ikki, you got a new medabot?"

"Yeah, Miss Nae let me borrow her until Metabee gets his memories back."

"Metabee lost his memories?"

"Not all of them," Metabee cut in. "Just most of them. Like who you two are.

"Then we should re-introduce ourselves," The first kid said. "My name, is Kam Kamizake."

"And I'm Rintarou! And your Redrun is so awesome dude!" The second hyperactive kid yelled.

"Kamizake? As in the Kamizake?" Windstorm spoke up, voice rising. "The son of the multi-billionaire, the designer of over three quarters of all the kilobots?" Kam looked down.

"Yeah... I bet you wouldn't trust the creator of so many kilobots, being a medabot and all..."

"Of course I wouldn't trust you! Why should I?" Windstorm shrieked, as if she hadn't almost died.

"Yo, just calm down," Metabee said calmly.

"Shut up tin-can, you don't understand!" Windstorm bit back. "You could never understand! You can barely even remember your own name and you think you're superior to me?"

"Windstorm, you're taking it too far," Ikki cut in. She ignored him completely.

"You could _never _understand the true feeling of hardship, suffering, even friendship. You have no idea of what those stupid pieces of scrap metal have put me through!" Kam tried speaking again.

"I'm sorry for whatever they've done..."

"Shut up! I'm speaking, maggot! And you can't..." Windstorm suddenly went dead as Ikki pulled her medal out of his medawatch.

"Hey, what gives?" Metabee yelled.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't stop someone from speaking out how they feel, but this isn't the place for her to wig out. I'll listen to her story later, but right now we need to save the city. And besides, she can't keep yelling like that in her condition. She might just use up the last of her energy. I can't let her get hurt when Miss Nae trusted her with me." Kam nodded his head and Rintarou kept staring at the medal until it was thrust inside Ikki's pocket.

"Whoa, that medabot's got energy! It's almost scary!"

"Right, are we ready to go?" Ikki asked.

"Right," Kam said with a quick nod.

"Alright let's do this!" Rintarou yelled. Both of them shouted out into their medawatches at the same time;

"Transport, medabots!" Two globes of light flashed on front of them, materialising into two KBT type medabots. Kam's was a black medabot like Metabee with yellow eyes. His eyes shined yellow and its head was protected and shaped similar to a girls hair.

**Blackbeetle: Extreme Tech**

**Medafighter: Kam**

**Specialty: Superior strength**

**Signature: Sniper skills**

Rintarou's medabot was almost exactly like Henry's Metal Beetle, but bulkier and without the two yellow dots on the shoulder extensions.

**Kantaroth: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Rintarou**

**Specialty: Rifle tactics**

**Signature: Seeker missiles**

"You're not leaving me behind, are ya?" Everyone's heads turned towards the ally were a large boy in a red jacket walked out of. Next to him was a red beetle medabot with two massive beetle horns sticking out of his head and chest. Each arm had three gun barrels for pointing forward and sideways.

"Ginkai!" Ikki screamed.

"You said it," the medabot said. "The real army has just arrived!"

**Arcbeetle dash (Arc-Dash): Medabot corporation**

**Medafighter: Ginkai**

**Specialty: Penetration beam**

**Signature: Teams with Tyrellbeetle**

"Don't forget about me and Roks!" A thin boy with glasses and dark green hair walked down the street next to two KWG type medabots. Data clicked about them as well.

**Roks: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafigher: Zuru**

**Specialty: Demolition mode**

**Signature: Advanced Medaforce**

**. . .**

**Tyrellbeetle: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Zuru**

**Specialty: Extreme power**

**Signature: Teams with Arcbeetle**

"Well if it isn't the mystery medafighter," Banjo said. "You no longer have your cape and hat anymore?"

"I don't need them. They were a mask I hid behind. But I've learnt a lot in the past year. I've figured out that I can only overcome obstacles if my medabot believes in me, not the mystery medafighter. And also if I believe in myself."

"Or, it got out of fashion," Metabee snickered.

"If you think you can ignore me and Sumilidon, then think again!" a yellow medabot suddenly appeared in the middle of the crowd of people. Everyone fell backwards in shock except for Redrun. Koji walked calmly in to his Exor, or Sumilidon.

**Exor (Sumilidon): Extreme Tech**

**Medafigher: Koji**

**Specialty: High speed attacks**

**Signature: Extreme Shadow sword**

"Koji!" Ikki yelled.

"That's right, and with my arrival, I'm almost certain that we cannot be beaten!"

"Koji, wait up!" A girls wearing a pink blouse and white skirt came after Koji before tripping on a small stone. Her medabot caught her just before she hit the ground. "Thanks Neutranurse," She said.

"Please be careful Karen," The nurse type medabot said. It was white and pink, looking almost exactly like a small nurse but with what looked like large pills on her arms.

**Neutranurse: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Karen**

**Specialty: Healing**

**Signature: Neutra wall**

"Karen!" Both Ikki and Rintarou exclaimed.

"Oh, hi Ikki, hi Rintarou. It looks like we're all in trouble. My house was the only spot that isn't in danger because of its security, but Koji said he would look for you guys and I got worried for him."

"So she came after me," Koji finished off. "Even after I told her it wasn't safe.

"You need a responsible adult with you," Miss Nae said as she arrived at the scene. "Transport, Saldron, Aquacrown, EarthKrona!" Three flashes of lightning, and then all three of them arrived.

**Saldron: Nae's Workshop**

**Medafighter: Miss Nae**

**Specialty: Transform**

**Signature: Brave Attack**

**. . .**

**Aquacrown: Nae's workshop**

**Medafighter: Miss Nae**

**Specialty: Transform**

**Signature: Support**

**. . .**

**Earthkrona: Nae's workshop**

**Medafighter: Miss Nae**

**Specialty: Transform**

**Signature: Unbreakable gaurd**

Earthkrona was a green armoured medabot with large tank legs and glowing blue eyes.

"Guys, wait for me and Komandog!" A short brown haired boy and a dog medabot were seen running towards the group. The boy, Tak, stopped before Miss Nae and Ikki. "Sorry guys, I was caught up going against a group of teenagers. They were threatening to take all our medals and I tried stopping them. I lost, badly. The Screws had to fight them, but know there are Mega-Emperors attacking them! I got scared, and me and Komandog ran away. But I don't wanna run away any more! I want to fight like you guys too! We don't want to run away and let us lose any longer... We're not gonna lose!"

**Komandog: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Tak**

**Specialty: Beam canons**

**Signature: Hound out**

"If you think you can leave me out of this picture then forget it!" Everyone turned to see who was making so much noise now. "An export reporter like me has to be where all the action is! I've seen Select Corps take on massive armies, and police defend civilians, but nobody has been even close to beating these guys! This might just be the only team in the whole of Japan that can fight these guys and I refuse to be left out!" Erika and Brass stepped towards Ikki.

"And if you tell me to go home, **I'll beat you to a bloody pulp myself!" **Erika's medabot, Brass, looked like an innocent schoolgirl, or a sailor and was coloured navy blue and red. The guns on her arms however, were anything but friendly.

**Sailor-Multi (Brass): Medabot Corporation**

**Medafigter: Erika**

**Specialty: Scout out**

**Signature: Machine pistols**

"Erika... Everyone, why are you all helping me? The Select Corps can handle this, you don't have to fight with me. You can go somewhere safe and hide. Why are you helping?"

"Oh come on, isn't it obvious you dummy?" Erika yelled. "Apart from 'because it'll make a good cover story', somebody nearly destroyed your Metabee and I've got a good hunch that this same kid's behind all of this too! Attacking our home is one thing, but attacking our friends, that's miles too far!"

"We can't let creeps like that leave knowing that they nearly destroyed us and there wasn't a thing we could do," Koji pointed out.

"If he escaped, or if we didn't fight ourselves, we'd be a disgrace to all medafighters everywhere," Zuru said quietly.

"It's about time we remind everyone that we're the heroes of this story!" Ginkai yelled.

"Those guys are using all types of medabots, even Kilobots," Kam said. "I can't let anyone use Kilobots for harm ever again! Blackbeetle taught me a lesson about bullying and they're bullying us. I won't allow it!"

"We're in this one together, know what I'm saying?" Kantaroth spoke up.

"Guys..." Ikki looked at the squad of people assembled.

_This is insane! I've never seen us all gathered like this before. Every single one of us is willing to sacrifice an arm and both legs to protect each other. This is real robattle spirit. I can see the ground shaking under the weight of all our combined spirits! It looks like this is the final stand._

_Ikki..._ Ikki looked around thinking he heard a voice. "_Ikki, it's me, Windstorm. Don't ask me how I'm talking to you, I'm not sure myself, but I need you to get a second copy of my old medaparts and activate me. I won't kill Kam, I can feel all of your spirits right now, and I know that he's a good person. I have to join the fight too!_

"Already taken care of," Miss Nae said, taking a copy of Windstorm's old parts out and placing her medal inside.

**Windsail: Nae's Workshop**

**Medafighter: Ikki**

**Specialty: Transform**

**Signature: Shadow Sword**

"I don't have a copy of your old right arm, but I've got a sword from the medabot Whitesword. You like transforming your arm into it so it's fine."

"Thanks guys. I can't believe that you'd all help me," Ikki said.

"Don't think it's all about you. We'd help if it was any of us," Koji said.

"And this guy's destroying town," Banjo continued. "I don't like you much, but I'll protect this town to the end! I can never lose this city to these creeps!"

"Then it's agreed!" The ground cracked and shook in what felt like an earthquake. Mr Referee dug out of the ground, spinning rapidly with a drill shaped helmet. "I officially declare this a submission war battle! I shall act as referee... and as a participant!"

"What?"

"I can also fight! These guys are breaking the rules. Everyone who breaks the rules is subject to the penalty box. Transport, nin-ninja!" A blue flash, followed by a medabot with what looked like a small satellite for legs. It held in its hand a sword and a poison dart. The satellite legs transported away, probably back to space, and a pair of ninja legs appeared in their place. The blue ninja medabot was ready.

**Nin-ninja: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Mr Referee**

**Specialty: Stealth**

**Signature: Nitouryou**

"Well then, shall we begin reclaiming the city?" Kam asked.

"Yeah, let's do this!" Koji yelled.

"Good luck everyone," Karen encouraged.

"Dude rock 'em!" Rintarou exclaimed.

"Biggest news story ever!" Erika shrieked.

"Be careful everyone," Miss Nae said worried.

"Medafighter's ready?" Mr Referee shouted.

"Me and Arc-dash can take them," Ginkai growled.

"Roks, Tyrell-Beetle, get ready," Zuru said preparing.

"I won't run away again!" Tak shouted.

"This is it, no more backing down," Ikki said.

"I rock!" Metabee yelled.

"Don't die, tin-can," Windstorm said.

"We can't lose," Blackbeetle said.

"Alright, now this is a robattle," Arc-Dash finished. Together they all walked down the street to the main saucer, for the final showdown with the big boss inside. Together they all screamed;

"_**Medafighters unite! Medafighters forever!"**_

. . .

"Boss, what do we do now?" The three Mega-Emperors had practically destroyed everything surrounding the 24 hour Hop mart, and nobody's medabots were in any condition to fight. Peppercat was still twitching in the remains of a building, still in shock. Totalizer had no weapons left to fight with, and even Metal-Beetle was done for.

"Peppercat, get up! We're retreating!" Peppercat crawled out of the wreckage, but was instantly blasted with all the missiles of Mega-Emperor at once. Samantha didn't even want to listen to the damage done on her medawatch. Henry was still controlling his Metal-Beetle with the skills of a master, but it wasn't enough.

"Meta-bee, rifle shot between his shoulders! We have to get rid of his guns now and this is the only way to do it!" Meta-bee aimed carefully and shot Mega-Emperor 1 between his shoulder blades, but to no effect.

**1% damage done. Not very effective.**

"Oh come on! How tough is this thing?"

"That's it, I can't take it anymore!" An unknown voice screamed. "Sanjuuro, quickflash slash!" Bright white light filled the air. The next moment, Sanjuuro was holding his sword on top of Mega-Emperor 2's shoulder, but it had only sunk in 2 inches, pathetic when you're up against Mega-Emperor. Sanjuuro flipped backwards and landed next to Zoro who had revealed himself.

"For crying out loud..." Zoro's two reluctant teammates stepped out from inside the store. Their boss marched towards Zoro.

"Of all the moves to make, you jump out from cover and expose us all too the Mega-Emperor's! Our orders clearly stated, **do not get seen by Mega-Emperor! **It's common sense!"

"Our orders also never said we should kill anyone, and that thing just might!" Zoro shot back.

"Hey, you've got to think before you do these things," Their massive partner said. "We could have called the Select Corps if we really wanted to save them."

"And what would they do to protect this place when they can't even get here through the mob of medabots? By the time they would arrive, it would be too late!"

"Does it matter?" Gun-Nose spoke up as he skidded next to Sanjuuro. "We're already here so we might as well fight!"

"Ah whatever," Chidori shrugged her shoulders. "We'll be quick about it. Redlace, E.M.P them!" Redlace brought her arms up and shot two grenades at the three Mega-Emperors. It exploded in a flash. All the Mega-Emperors not realising the danger they were in, fired their lasers. The massive guns exploded, blinding anyone who stared at them as the guns shot off of the arms. The missiles kept flying though, and they smashed straight into Redlace.

**100% head damage to Redlace. Functions ceased.**

"What? I barely even robattled!"

"Of course not with those skills!" Henry screamed at her. "You're way too over-confident, even after I already blew you to bits! Your Redlace doesn't have any defence to begin with but you thought with such an awesome team you wouldn't lose. Redlace is the only medabot who can damage Mega-Emperor and you let her down. Think carefully next time!" Her face turned red in anger.

"Take that all back you super nerd! I could beat you any day!"

"So why haven't you yet," Henry stated, sounding almost exactly like Space Medafighter X. It didn't sound like a question, but more like a challenge. She hesitated, and then huffed.

"I don't need to fight wimps like you!"

Mega-Emperor 3 aimed what was left of his lasers at the group.

"Gun-Nose, gun-Gatling barrage!" Gun-Nose lifted up his chain machine gun and hammered a rain of bullets into Mega-Emperor's laser canon. Flecks of armour chipped off of him, but it wasn't enough to stop the crazy looking beam that shot out of him. Even anyone not hit could feel the gale force winds streaming past them.

"Totalizer!" Totalizer stood before the laser beam as his v-shaped visor lit up. The laser beam from Totalizer collided into Mega-Emperor's sending a giant shockwave through the air. The point of collision exploded in a green and blue wave, sending everyone flying metres back on the floor. Samantha got up first.

"Now's your chance Peppercat, lightning blow!" Peppercat launched herself off the floor and launched towards Mega-Emperor 3. The other two Mega-Emperor's kept firing at her from where they were, but she leaped over them all like a wildcat, never once hesitating. She brought her paw back and shoved it into Mega-Emperor's face. The electricity coursed through his whole body.

**15% damage. Paralyzed.**

"What? It barely did anything!" Samantha screamed. Gun-Nose and Sanjuuro ran towards Mega-Emperor 2, guns blazing and weapons brandished. They jumped skywards. Gun-Nose shot out two seeker missiles, which were easily sliced in half by the lasers on Mega-Emperor's head. Sanjuuro brought his fist down on Mega-Emperor 2's shoulder, the same one he cracked. The crack grew wider still. Gun-Nose finished the job with a rifle in the crack.

**50% damage to left arm.**

"Yeah, that's how we role!" Ken yelled. Zoro let out a tiny half smile.

"It's not over yet," Chidori said. "All three Mega-Emperor's seem angry!" All of their eyes flashed red instead if the usual blue.

"**Assuming attack positions," **they all said at once. **"Activating Death-break attack!"**

"No!" Sloan cried out. "You can't stop Mega-Emperor's Death-Break! It doubles, or even triples your weight! It messes up your medabot's gravity and can implode your parts! Only his Death-Lasers are stronger, but none are more effective at immobilizing opponents!" All three Mega-Emperor's charged up their head antennas. Lightning arced and crackled between all three medabots as they prepared to fire. Samantha shut her eyes, preparing for the worst. Sloan pale like ghost. Three massive electric balls crackled in front of them. Henry smiled slightly.

"Well Meta-Bee, it's been a ride alright. But it looks like we're all toast."

"Don't say that Henry," Meta-Bee replied. "We're not done yet. I can still fight!"

"Stubborn aren't you? Alright then, are you ready to try it? Bring on, the me-"

"Krosserdog, now!" A massive bazooka blast went flying over everyone's heads and into the heart of the centre energy ball. The ball of lightning crackled and fizzed and eventually sparked out, blasting Mega-Emperor2 one hundred metres back. Everyone turned to the source of the blast. Spyke and Krosserdog stood, Krosserdog's battle rifle aimed at the Mega-Emperors. Krosserdog's left arm was a huge orange hammer fist. Details flashed on medawatches.

**Krosserdog: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Spyke**

**Specialty: Battle Sniping**

**Signature: Decoy Crab**

"Boss! We're here to save you!" Spyke yelled. "Sorry for running off earlier. Me and Krosserdog just made a little tactical retreat." Samantha stared at Spyke long and hard and pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Chidori flared up.

"First of all, HOW CAN A WUSS LIKE YOU HELP ANYONE? GET OUTTA HERE NOW! Second, Your grammar is almost as bad as your face. Me and Krosserdog? Don't you mean Krosserdog and I?"

"Shut up!" Spyke shot back. "Don't you get how annoying you are? Nobody cares about your stupid grammar, nobody cares about whether you're the boss or not, nobody cares about anything you think here! If you want a bunch of goons to pamper you, or fear you, go back to your mamas house. You're not ready to be a real medafighter and you never will be with your attitude!" Chidori went brighter than a Tomato.

"Now hold on, my teammates respect me, and they can beat you! You can't say anything!"

"Please, your partners probably only let you be the boss 'cause they just don't care to oppose you. They're medafighters, not you."

"But my gang is..."

"Your gang aint you! They aren't a measure of your strength! Thirty minutes ago, I was living proof of that. But now I think I can take on anyone!" Chidori's mouth opened to protest, but found she couldn't say anything back and looked down shamefaced. Samantha would have stabbed herself to check she really was awake.

_Is this... Spyke? The same Spyke of the Screws gang? He's completely different! He's gotten serious now. It's not like he wasn't serious before, he just wasn't any good, but now... not even Space Medafighter X could match up to this level of power. He knocked a Mega-Emperor over with one shot, and from his rifle! What happened to him?_

"**Initiating Death-Break!" **The other two Mega-Emperor's shot out the energy balls they had along with a massive laser beam.

"Krosserdog, use the Decoy Crab!" Krosserdog moved forward on his fists like an ape and jumped towards the energy balls. He swung his huge fist towards the electricity balls heading towards him and smashed them in the centre, bending them inwards as they came to a standstill. They hung there for two seconds before blasting off back towards the two Mega-Emperors. They smashed into both of them, peeling off massive chunks of metal along the way.

**Warning. 100% damage to right arms on Mega-Emperor's 1 and 2. 75% damage to legs and left arm. 30% damage to head.**

The impact from the blasts was too much for them. They skidded backwards on the floor and shot up to the sky like rockets, trailing a blazing stream of fire. Once they were two hundred feet up, they sunk to the ground again, barely having five seconds for the whole journey with their weight increased. They smashed into the ground, and kept falling through, making a crater in the floor.

**Critical. 100% damage to all medaparts on Mega-Emperor 2. Functions ceased.**

Everyone just kept staring at the crater were both Mega-Emperors were lying in. Spyke smiled.

"You know, his medal ejected while he was still in the sky." Everyone looked up and sure enough, a small golden object was falling at a slow steady pace. It landed in Krosserdog's only free hand.

"Way too easy boss," He said turning around to greet him.

"**Rooooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!" **A barrage of missiles shot through the air and straight into Krosserdog's back. Dust clouds burst up into the sky along with Krosserdog's scrams of terror.

**Legs 100% damage. Functions ceased. Left arm 75% damage.**

"Krosserdog!" Spyke screamed. The third Mega-Emperor had returned. His lasers were glowing red, preparing to deliver the final blow to the broken down hound.

"Peppercat, Lightning jump!"

"Gun-Nose, back her up!"

"Sanjuuro, grab Krosserdog and flash out of there!" Sanjuuro teleported to Krosserdog's aid and picked up his shattered frame. Peppercat distracted the Mega-Emperor, getting the lasers aimed at her while Gun-Nose aimed at him.

"Gun-Nose, use the Gun-Gatling barrage!" Gun-Nose's chain machinegun began whirring loudly as it spun around, preparing to embed the foe with a volley of bullets. Blue tracer bullets blasted out of Gun-Nose's vibrating arm. Massive chunks of metal were ripped off of hi as Mega-Emperor's armour shattered, having by now taken all it could.

**All Medaparts between 70% and 75% damage. Defensive armour cracked.**

Mega-Emperor 1 got up from the crater in the ground and made a roaring noise. Mega-Emperor3 joined with him, standing together aiming lasers at Gun-Nose. Peppercat jumped onto its head and sent more electricity through Mega-Emperor3 while Meta-Bee ran straight up to Mega-Emperor1, ignoring the lasers that were shredding him, and smashed his left fist into its face. As soon as they connected, machinegun bullets sprayed into its head from close range.

"Krosserdog, now!" Spyke cried out. A single sniper bullet tore through the air, piercing through Mega-Emperor3's back, dead on into where its heart would be. Electricity crackled all along his torso and head as functions malfunctioned.

**Critical. Head medapart malfunctioning. 78% damage. **

"Yeah! Krosserdog is a master when it comes to sniping down enemies!" Spyke cheered. "In the middle of a battle, he doesn't have time to aim and his medal doesn't give him the natural talent needed to fight with guns. But when he's in a calm, closed environment, he never misses a single shot! That makes him the perfect sniper! You don't know where you're getting hit from, where he's hiding, or even how does it! I don't even know! But once he disappears, nobody can find him again!" The Mega-Emperor flailed around uncontrollably as an all important cord was snapped clean in half. A hole could be seen through his armour if you could get close enough to look.

In a blind rage, The rogue Mega-Emperor let lose all of its weapons at once in random directions, obliterating everything around it. A stray missile somehow managed to fly back to its own shoulder. Peppercat was unfortunate enough to still be on it. The missile smashed into her instead of the monster, blasting her off its shoulder and into a parked truck. The whole truck exploded in a blazing inferno, of which Peppercat was in the heart of.

**100% damage to all parts. Functions ceased.**

"Peppercaaaaaat!" Samantha screamed in agony, as if she was the one being blown to bits. Henry looked away from the inferno, knowing that Peppercat's body was done for. Who knew whether the medal would survive. The Mega-Emperor obviously didn't care as everything around it blew to pieces. Meta-Bee's right arm got blasted to pieces from a laser as the part went dark from shutting down. Another missile impacted and Meta-Bee was blown back to Henry, all parts except his head greyed over and shutdown.

"Sanjuuro, escape before..." A massive explosion, followed by the soft clink of a medal hitting pavement silenced Zoro.

"Ah no, this is stupid," Kenneth yelled. "I'm booking outta here before..." Gun-Nose went flying back to his feet in tatters.

"Yo w'sup big Ken?" Gun-Nose said weakly. "I don't look too good huh? My bad... for being too weak..." His eyes switched off an the panel on his back nearly popped out with all parts at 99% damage.

"Totalizer, please, wake up!" Sloan screamed at his medabot, seeing the danger they were in when Kenneth himself nearly got hit by a missile, falling backwards over with scratches and a bleeding shoulder. Amazingly, Totalizer's eyes flashed back on, almost like he was back from the dead.

"I won't lose again Sloan, I won't let you down" Totalizer said, barely above a whisper. From out of the blue, his voice raised dramatically in volume. _**"I won't lose again!"**_Totalizer's eyes flashed bright green. _**"Eat my Tyranno laser!" **_Totalizer's visor flashed bright green as he aimed at the insane medabot. He released a laser blast at least three times the size of his whole body from his face alone, tearing the ground apart in the process. What was left of the tarmac disintegrated underneath the blast, smashing into pieces as the beam canon made its way towards the enemy. The Mega-Emperor completely disappeared beneath the attack, most likely torn to pieces as the blast kept going straight through him. The attack smashed bits of earth and then took off like a plane into the clouds above, disappearing like a star. About three seconds later, an explosion was visible in the clouds as the laser used the last of its strength in a glorious, last stand firework display. After the spray was over, everyone looked back at the spot where Mega-Emperor was. Nothing was left. A small pile of dust. The medal didn't exist. Just the green gem. The medalias. Nobody could believe that came from Totalizer. They checked the data to make sure.

**Totalizer system overload. Functions ceased.**

**Mega-Emperor taken unknown amounts of damage. Medaparts unavailable to take data from. Error. No Mega-Emperor3 data available. Functions assumed ceased.**

"Just one more guy left..." Henry snarled. Mega-Emperor1, the leader, was still running rampant.

"Krosserdog, get him!" Krosserdog exploded from under a manhole and shot through its head with the one second he had. The bullet bounced off harmlessly. He ran towards Mega-Emperor and brought his fist back, preparing to smash him to pieces. The Mega-Emperor aimed his lasers at Krosserdog and without remorse, blasted the three laser beams through Krosserdog's arm, legs and head. Krosserdog fell backwards, somersaulting through the air before landing on his feet, tottering a few steps, and then finally rumpling to the floor. Mega-Emperor continuously blasted the destroyed body with his lasers and missiles.

**100% damage. Functions ceased.**

"Don't worry Spyke, I've got your back." Henry said. "Meta-Bee, this is our only chance, activate the medaforce!" Metal Beetle glowed bright red and orange with electric arcs flashing around him. The second Metabee's signature line kicked in.

"Dude, I rock." The Mega-Emperor turned to face the fearsome opponent. Meta-Bee was unfazed by the ear-splitting roar. **"It's time to kiss your bot goodbye! Medaforce!" **Meta-Bee clamped his fists together and blasted out an orange blast twice the size of a freight train into the enemy. The blast kept getting larger as it travelled until it was five times its original size. Mega-Emperor stood no chance.

**200% damage. Functions ceased.**

The light died down as Meta-Bee collapsed on the floor.

"We did it," Samantha whispered quietly. "We won."

"We beat 'em," Spyke said slightly louder.

"No way," Sloan said, unbelieving.

"We wasted the suckers!" Kenneth celebrated. "We murdered them! All three of them!" Everyone broke into cheers at the victory. Henry and Meta-Bee collapsed onto the floor exhausted.

"Man, how do they have any energy left?" Henry shouted. "How is it possible Meta-Bee, Arcbeetle?" Meta-Bee said nothing, unable to speak. Henry nodded knowingly. "You know, you don't talk much anymore. This is the most I've heard you speak in a fight. But I get it. Don't waste energy, right? Huh..." Everyone cheered and patted each other's backs while Samantha walked to the wreck where Peppercat lay.

"Peppercat... are you still there?" The door of the car popped open as some trapped gas exploded outwards. Peppercat's body rolled out of it as well. It was barely recognizable among the other parts. Samantha's eyes filled with tears as she remembered all the adventures they'd been through. Even worse still, what she had said in the morning.

"_You are Samantha, leader of the Screws gang, my amazing medafighter... And my best friend."_

It was all Samantha could do to stop herself from crying. He searched the wreckage for anything that could give her a sign. Her heart fluttered as she saw something glitter underneath the car rims. She reached towards it when suddenly everything went dark around like a shadow had fallen on her. All the cheers and laughter stopped. She looked up behind her into the sky to see what was happening. This time tears did flow, but in fear as well as grief.

_It keeps happening..._

**You've gotta fight for your right to robattle!**


	9. Shine! Against all odds, ignite!

**Things are getting even more epic! A lot of things have happened now, a lot which not even I'd planned or seen coming. But now enough of these games! The Screws have had their chance, but now it's time for all the medafighters to unite against evil, to challenge destiny, to shine and show their robattle sprit! Shine!**

**Shine! Against all odds, ignite!**

Samantha shifted the car rim slowly, even though she knew that the shine underneath couldn't be a medal. Or could it? Suddenly everything went dark around like a shadow had fallen on her. All the cheers and laughter stopped. She looked up behind her into the sky to see what was happening. This time tears did flow, but in fear as well as grief.

_It keeps happening... _Samantha pulled the car rim away and grabbed for the shiny object. It was just an earring, probably left before the explosion. Dented and smashed, the only part left was the diamond in the middle. Samantha frantically swept aside car parts in her search...

Henry walked over to the Mega-Emperor he had shut down, a small pile of dust and a few pieces of scrap metal. Underneath all the ash was a smashed medal with a perfectly intact purple gem.

"I'll be taking this now," he said with a smile as he stooped over to pick up the golden medal. He brushed the dirt off of it and examined it. His smile widened as he saw the pattern on it. "I'm guessing this thing isn't any good anymore. Kinda sad when I think about how strong these medals are. At least its medalias is still good enough to use." The scene around him got darker. Henry looked up at the sky to see what was blocking out the sun. His pupils dilated with the dreadful realisation that they hadn't won, but they'd only bough time for their ultimate demise. Meta-Bee looked up as well.

"What the,"

Spyke looked up from where he was checking on Krosserdog.

"Well buddy," He started with a tremble in his voice. "We sure picked a great day to toughen up, didn't we?"

"You said it boss," Krosserdog said. "We only fought when all the tough guys appeared, and then the mother load!"

"These are the moments were you wish you stayed in bed huh? It looks like we're really finished this time."

Sloan relaxed all his muscles as he realized that he stood no chance this time. Totalizer wouldn't wake up again without repairs, even with all the self repairing nano-machines inside him. A medabot can only take so much before it's out of juice. In turn, Sloan, then Spyke, then Samantha spoke;

"Are we ready? To kiss-"

"-Our own bots"

"-Goodbye."

. . .

"**Medafighter's unite!"**

Those were the words last spoken while not in a battle. Rogue medabots were tossed around like they were kites before the combined might of all the strongest medafighters. A platoon of female jet medabots charged at them all, blasting missiles everywhere.

"Metabee, missile launch!" Metabee blasted two heat seeking seeker missiles at the leading jet medabot. It exploded in a cloud of dust and before it could recover, a volley of laser bullets rained down on it from Kantaroth, Arc-Dash, Blackbeetle, Brass, and Saldron. The others ignored the attacks and charged on.

"Alright girls, formation blitz!" The new leader shouted. The medabots, or Femjets, shot into the sky so they couldn't be hit, and then dived down again, firing the missiles from their wings along the way.

"Roks, intercept now!" Zuru's Roks transformed into a hovercraft form and shot up to meet the missiles. At the last moment he transformed back to normal and sliced them all in half, occasionally getting a Femjet that broke ranks. They fell from the sky like birds and were finished off by Tyrellbeetle's unmerciful hammer. Medals clinked all around them as Saldron transformed her arm into Mega-Emperor's death missile launcher. And during all of this, nobody stopped running. The target was the mother ship flying saucer, and nobody, human or medabot, would stop until they had reached that goal. The badly beaten Femjets were soon joined by a second wave of troops, every single one of them being Exors.

"Ikki, Rintarou, Erika, Kam, call back your medabots," Miss Nae warned them. " Exor is designed to hunt down KBT types and other shooting types. Your medabots are useless against them!"

"What? Uh, ok then," Metabee said unwillingly as he went to the back of the lot.

"Not me though!" Kam shouted. "Those are Kilobots fighting us. I can't let my creations cause harm any longer. I'm sorry, but I will destroy them!" Blackbeetle brought up her guns.

"This is for everything we've been through!" she screamed. She released a volley of machinegun bullets into the wave of fighters. Exors fell to the floor with broken parts but more of them just crawled over them.

"Sumilidon, Shadow Sword!"

"Windsail, Shadow Sword!" Koji's Sumilidon, or Exor jumped into the centre of the enemies and jumped sky high, spinning wildly. He landed in the middle of the crowd, sticking his claws in the ground making an earthquake that spread across the entire army. They all flew high into the sky, and where then sliced to pieces by Windsail who had appeared from nowhere with her gleaming silver sword. The Exors split up, seemingly running away, but were only creating room for the Femjets to dive in and finish their job.

"We're pinned down!" Windsail yelled.

"Don't worry, I've got your back sister," Saldron shouted, firing her bombardier part into the crowd. Aquacrown flew into the crowd and transformed her right arm into a slender pink hand. She laid her arm on Windsail's legs which were dented and badly bruised from the missiles that the Femjets fired at her. Sumilidon jumped into the sky and finished off the last of the Femjets. Just then a low drone was heard in the background. More flying medabots arrived at the scene.

"Nin-Ninja," Mr Referee started. "Use the skills of your two sword fighting style!" The ninja medabot brought out two katanas from their sheaths and charged at the random ensemble of unorganised medabots. Kantaroth re-emerged and picked them all of with his rifle. Anyone who strayed too far from the group was shot down, quickly and efficiently. Nin-Ninja ran up a building wall and hopped across rooftops until he was level with the enemies. "Nin-Ninja, prepare to do it!"

"Ninpou," the ninja said. "Tenshou Katana! (Lunar fang sword!)" Nin-ninja shined bright white and his swords began glowing blue with energy, or some strange type of technology. Nin-ninja launched himself into the sky and brought his sword down on all the flying enemies. A thin wave of air broke free of the sword and hammered itself onto the enemy, cutting parts off of them.

"Alright, let's move on!" Miss Nae shouted. They hadn't stopped running anyway but it was more of a morale boost. But before they could even move another step, a crate was dropped onto the streets from a smaller saucer. Everyone jumped back from the crate. Slowly, the lid started opening, as if scared to reveal the secrets inside. Then all at once, the crate exploded outwards, revealing an army of tank medabots, Tankars, and a dinosaur like medabots.

**Robo-Emperor: Rubber-Robo gang lab**

**Medafighter: Invasion force**

**Specialty: Destruction**

**Signature: Gravity bang**

The Tankars all spread around the field, spurred on by the roars of the Robo-Emperor, obviously the commander of the force. The Robo-Emperor opened up its mouth, revealing a red, sinister looking energy blast inside.

"Neutranurse, use the Neutra-wall!" Karen shouted. Robo-Emperor shot out the blast, hoping to eviscerate everything there. Neutranurse stepped ahead of everyone and created a pink energy shield, blocking out the attack. Electricity zapped itself out everywhere on impact, startling everyone behind the shield. As the attack cleared away, the shield went down as Neutranurse collapsed in fatigue. Karen ran towards her to check that she wasn't badly damaged.

"I've had just about enough of you," Banjo snarled. "Redrun, finish that thing off now!"

"Metabee, cover form him and take out the Tankar!"

"You to Arc-Dash."

"Tyrell Beetle, go with Redrun and execute the 'ghost destructor!'" Zuru ordered.

" The ghost destructor? Nice choice!" Tyrell Beetle yelled as him and Redrun went straight for the Robo-Emperor. The Tankars tried stopping them with the machineguns they had, but they were all knocked over instantly by Metabee and Arc-Dash's machineguns. Tyrell beetle transformed into a flat tank like form with his two massive pincers in the front. Redrun ran towards the Robo-Emperor, and smacked it hard in the face while it was charging another blast. His fist connected with the inside of its mouth, his arm exploding along with most of Robo-Emperor's head. Tyrell Beetle then drove forward into the tangle of spaghetti looking cords Robo-Emperor used as legs. He sliced at them all, chopping them off with sparks of electricity, sending Robo-Emperor to the floor. Just before it hit the ground, Tyrell beetle transformed back to normal and grabbed the tentacle like legs with his arms. In a random burst of power, he spun around with the large medabot in his hands, knocking over all the nearby Tankars with their own commander, and then tossing the medabot high into the air until it was one hundred metres up. Just to finish it up, Redrun jumped up to greet him as he fell. They crossed paths in mid-air, but Redrun didn't let the Robo-Emperor fall any longer. He grabbed its head as he went up, taking the Robo-Emperor back up with him. Once they were back up at that height, Robo-Emperor punched it in the face again, multiple times until its face was shattered beyond recognition. He then slammed it sideways into a nearby building, smashing the windows, and then hurled him down to the floor. The Robo-Emperor crashed into a parked car, crumpling the car in on itself with the weight of the medabot. Redrun landed peacefully next to the car and put his hand out. Robo-Emperor's medal ejected just then, flipping into Redrun's open hand. Redrun put it on the ground and brought his foot up, preparing to crush the medal.

"No! Don't!" Ikki's voice rang out along with Banjo's. Banjo continued speaking.

"Don't break that medal! I know I used to tell you to smash them all, but this guy might be useful!"

"**Commands not recognized," **Redrun growled. **"Only recognised order; don't break that medal." **Redrun slowly put his foot down and picked up and tossed the medal towards Banjo. Banjo caught it and stowed it into his jacket.

"Woah, that's real power!" WIndsail said astonished.

"That guy was waaaaaaaay too easy for a Weapon type," Tyrellbeetle shouted, a bit sceptical. "I kinda expected more of a boss battle seeing as he was dropped from a crate and all."

"Maybe it was defective?" Zuru said. "Or maybe they were just a distraction, to slow us down. IT worked since we've all stopped."

"Or maybe I'm just that strong!" Tyrellbeetle started up again. "I mean, come on. I'm one of the only medabots who can match a Kilobot one-on-one!"

"Don't get overconfident," Roks said. "Your medal doesn't match your medaparts, so you have to watch out for any problems while fighting. And you're not the only one who can fight Kilobots."

"Yeah, there's me, Metabee! I can still remember some of them. I rocked against them!"

"Actually, you lost more than you won," Miss Nae reminded him. Metabee sunk to the floor in disappointment.

"Well we've gotta start moving again!" Ikki shouted.

"That's right! I'm gonna Medabee-bop 'em!" Metabee screamed out.

"So what are we waiting for?" Koji yelled. "Sumilidon still hasn't got his fair share of knockouts yet, let's do this!" The crew started off again at a sprint. Rogue medabots flooded out of the alley ways, rooftops, and even sewer systems. A battalion of Totalizers all charged down the street, aiming their deadly laser beams at the group. All of them fired at once, hoping to disintegrate the medafighters all at once. Earthkrona transformed her arms into purple shields and stood defending Miss Nae. Banjo found a trash can lid and blocked the lasers with it. Koji pulled out a real katana and held the blade forward.

"Sumilidon, these guys are harming innocent people. My pride won't allow me to leave all of the fighting to medabots alone. Even though we're working together as medafighter and medabot to defend everyone, I still won't allow it!" Koji jumped over a laser beam and seemed to teleport away. Sumilidon jumped up and disappeared as well.

"Shadow Sword!" The pair screamed, reappearing in behind the group of medabots, slashing them to bits. Before even half of them were gone though, a mob of sea medabots rose up from the manholes, all of them green toad like medabots. They all fired missiles at the pair at once. The two exploded in a cloud of smoke before the Femjets shot down and blasted them with more missiles.

"Koji!" Ikki screamed. The dust cleared slowly and revealed the two of them missing. Koji and Sumilidon materialised in front of the medafighters. Miss Nae walked over to him slowly and gently grabbed his shoulders.

"Koji, that was reckless. I know you want to help, but this is too dangerous for you to fight out on your own. You can't attack them head on. Just think of the tactics and Sumilidon will handle it. Or better yet, use your head and find a weakness." This was really the first time that Koji had seen Miss Nae except for when everyone gathered the first time.

"Uh... but I was just trying to help..."

"I know, but if you got injured, how would Sumilidon continue to robattle? We need the both of you together, robattling as one mind. We can't win if you're split in half."

"Ok, I get it. Sorry."

"If you don't mind," Erika cut in suddenly. "Could you please help us out now? Like, right now!" Brass was blasting at all the medabots popping out of the sewers and Metabee was firing seeker missiles down the manhole, hopping to spark off some leaky gas and blast them out. Neutranurse was healing Sumilidon who got scratched up from the explosions and Kantaroth and Blackbeetle were fighting back to back in the centre of it all.

"Kantaroth, seeker missiles to the flying types!" Kantaroth shot out two missiles, sending them flying towards the Femjets and other medabots. At least fifteen of them blew up at once, the clinking of medals drowning out all other sounds, but they were instantly replaced by more medabots.

"Ok Sumilidon, Shadow Sword!" Sumilidon jumped into the sky and cut down more of them, slicing parts off of them.

"Arc-Dash, charge up your penetration beam!" Arc-Dash's horns started sparking up violently, electricity arcing between the two horns as they heated up.

"Here's a little something from the original Arcbeetle. Behold! The power of the midnight sun, the pillar of fire! It's... **the Prominence!**" Arc-Dash fired a purple energy beam from in-between his horns, the blast practically eating the ground as it made its way towards the Totalizers. The whole squad exploded in a puff of smoke, sparks flying everywhere from the centre. The dust cleared, revealing burnt medabots with their medals ejected.

"Alright, we did it!" Arc-Dash yelled triumphant. The ground shook slightly. Looked to where the vibration was strongest, and instantly froze in fear. A sea of purple dinosaur looking medabots marched/slithered across the road towards everyone.

"No way, an army of them?" Tyrellbeetle shouted incredulous before a mob of air medabots attacked him.

"Komandog, use your laser canons!" Tak said. Komandog aimed his canons at the flying medabot and shot them all off of Tyrellbeetle with precision aim. Tyrellbeetle limped over to Aquacrown and Neutranurse for healing while Roks took his place on the attack. The Robo-Emperor tide grew ever closer, and ever more present.

"What will we do about those Robo-Emperor's?" Mr Referee asked, not sure whether they could escape them.

"There's nothing to do," Kam said. "Just fight!"

"Dude, this is too much for me and Kantaroth!" Rintarou screamed. "What'll we do?" Ikki looked at all the medabots. They all looked way too damaged to fight normally against the Robo-Emperors. They had to reach the mothership in one piece. Unless...

"Guys, somebody with Action has to distract the Robo-Emperors! One guy isn't enough, they'll know we're up to something. So Metabee, Roks, Exor, Arc-Dash, and Tyrellbeetle have to go with us. You guys make it to the main saucer!"

"Ikki, what are you talking about?" Erika screamed. "Go on your own? We need everybody to fight! Not just a few guys!"

"We'll be back, we won't take long."

"Of course you won't... because you'll be dead!"

"Erika, we'll be fine," Koji said. "After all, I'll be protecting them!"

"I don't trust you either!"

Zuru walked over to Erika and looked her in the eye, silent determination painted on his face.

"Erika, don't worry. We will make it back alright. That's a promise!"

"But, Zuru..."

"They haven't seen you guys yet. Go through the alley way and meet up with us at the 24 hour hop mart. We'll find a way to lose these guys. Go!" Erika hovered on the spot for a second before Miss Nae tugged at her arm to go. Ginkai joined the group who were leaving.

"Don't worry guys; I've got your backs! Buuut, in case you guys lose and I survive, can I have your medaparts?"

The medabots all transformed into some kind of four wheeled vehicle and the kids all rode on top of them as they charged into the sea of medabots. The rest of the group ran through the alley way.

. . .

"Drive faster Metabee!" Ikki screamed.

"I'm trying I'm trying!" Metabee shouted back. The group shot past dusty streets and empty shops, trying to escape the Robo-Emperors.

"Who's idea was it to blow up five Robo-Emperors?" Ginkai asked as he skateboarded Arc-Dash.

"And how come none of us noticed how these ones have **wings **and can fly?" Arc-Dash gasped, running low on power.

"And did anyone notice that they had female tin-pets?" Tyrellbeetle said. Everyone turned to him, as if asking how that was important. "What? It just means that they're all girls, modified obviously."

"He means that because of this, they have different strengths and weaknesses, like flight over power." Roks added helpfully. "They are nothing like the one we met earlier."

"So, they're not only tough and fast, but we know nothing about them?" Metabee asked. "But if they're faster than before then they've got to have less power, right?"

"Wrong," Ikki corrected. "Did you see what they did back there? They practically destroyed an entire city block with just one blast!"

"So what is its weakness?"

"I don't know!

"So how do we win?"

"WE DON'T! WE SURVIVE!"

"WHAT?"

A barrage of missiles attacked them, almost sending Roks, who was unmanned, off track. They picked up the pace in desperation.

"Master, they're gaining on us," Roks said, panic entering his usually calm voice. The strong demeanour he had been known for was rapidly disappearing.

"Just don't stop and we'll be fine," Zuru said.

"Try tell that to them!" Sumilidon pointed out. A barrage of napalm bombs assailed them from up above, nearly blasting them off track. They sped through a tunnel, barely avoiding a sweeping laser beam.

"Hey guys, how are we gonna lose them?" Ikki asked.

"We could turn around," Zuru answered. "They'll be expecting us at the other side, not back where we came from."

"Alright, then let's go!" Koji yelled. All of them U-turned and went back where they came from to the light at the start of the tunnel. They emerged from the tunnel, just to see more Robo-Emperors.

"It looks like they left half of their patrol here," Arc-Dash said weakly just before they all roared at them. Everyone screamed in terror and drove back into the tunnel. After about five seconds they drove back out again, followed by more Robo-Emperors. The two squadrons trapped them outside the tunnel and circled them like bats.

"I can't believe it!" Ginkai cried out. "We're just gonna die as food to cannibalistic Robo-Emperors!"

"I don't think they're gonna _eat _us," Zuru added, despite the tremble in his voice.

"So? They'll still kill us and that's bad!" One of the Robo-Emperor's climbed higher into the sky and let loose a terrifying, earth shattering scream before diving down to attack along with the rest of them.

"Well, I guess we have to fight them off!" Metabee screamed. "Eat my demolition canon!" Metabee's tank parts transported onto him and he aimed his massive hulking frame at the leader, already knowing it wouldn't be enough to win.

"Brass, blast him!"

A volley of machinegun bullets hammered themselves into the lead Mega-Emperor's cord like legs. Multiple wires split and cut and the beast fell from the skies as a burning wreck.

**20% damage to leg medaparts. Not very effective.**

Everybody's heads turned towards the source of the attack. Before they could even notice who it was, a large red X sped over to the downed Robo-Emperor and wrapped itself around her arm.

**Arm medapart deactivated. Unable to use missiles.**

"Hey, Ikki! I told you that if you leave me behind I'd beat you to a bloody pulp!"

"Erika!" Ikki said.

"Oi Tin-can, I told Miss Nae I'd save your sorry butt so don't run off and get it killed without me!"

"Windstorm?" Metabee shrieked.

"That's Wind_sail _when in these parts. I'm here to win it!" Everyone looked at the people coming. Flying in the sky was Windsail, with her arms spread wide like a plane's wings with Erika sitting on top. Underneath them on the ground was Komandog blasting lasers everywhere with Brass holding on to his shoulders.

"Is everyone alright?" Brass asked sounding concerned. "We had to sneak out of the group just to get here because Miss Nae wouldn't let us go."

"Where is everybody, is Karin alright?" Koji asked almost aggressively.

"Don't worry," Komandog growled. "Karin is with everyone else. They're all hiding inside a restaurant." Everyone exhaled visibly, relieved to know that everyone was safe.

"But more importantly is this,," Erika started. **"Robo-Emperors!" **The other dinos all charged at Komandog and Brass who had gotten off him.

"Sumilidon, Shadow Sword!"

"Metabee, Demolition blast!" Metabee let loose a massive canon, destroying over half of the enemy medabots in one shot. The rest were quickly finished off by Sumilidon and Windstorm... Or so they thought.

All of the Robo-Emperors got up like the living dead, eyes flashing red in rage.

"Oh-oh..." Metabee got shot back from a destructive mouth blast, flying into the bridge and disappearing inside. Everyone screamed in absolute terror again and scattered in different directions, taking a number Of Robo-Emperors with them.

"Metabee, where are you?"

"Ikki! I'm over here!" Metabee limped through the tunnel to where Ikki was. He nearly collapsed onto Ikki, just barely being caught.

"Don't worry Metabee, you're gonna be fine. Everyone's scattered though and they're getting chased down by the Robo-Emperors. We're lucky, none are following us."

"Don't jinx me Ikki, let's go before they find us..." A small crack split across the roof. The crack rapidly widened and Ikki, seeing the danger, grabbed Metabee and ran. The crack split, letting the road above the tunnel fall in, shaking up everything inside like an earthquake. An army of Robo-Emperor upgrades fell through roaring along with a Mega-Emperor with a Red flag tied to his back. Obviously this was the commanding force.

"Holy Medarolli!"

"You see Ikki? You're a jinx!"

"Run!" Metabee transformed into action mode and Ikki hopped on top, just narrowly missing an array of weapons. The impact of the hit launched the pair forward on a clump of rising earth as they flipped forward deeper into the damaged tunnel.

_Is this really that hopeless?_ Ikki thought to himself as he almost passed out, buried under what felt like a ton of bricks. He blankly watched the approaching medabots._ Are we really destined to lose before we've even made it to the Mothership? No way. I refuse. I... __**REFUUUUUUSE!**_

_**People! We're getting ever closer to the conclusion of this arc! Things are really getting serious! You've gotta fight for your right to robattle!**_


	10. Shine! Against all odds, Explode!

**Sorry I'm late. I got caught up… ****being awesome! ****Seriously though, after so long you guys are probably gonna wanna rip my head off and scream, 'WHAT'S WITH THE DELAY?' interesting story actually**

**Metabee: LIES! YOU'RE JUST LAZY!**

**Amidst all the laziness, consuming of massive amounts of food, and other such time wasting issues that only occur in the summer, until now when I got this chapter right, I successfully managed to fail to write a good chapter three times in a row, despite all my best efforts! I had to redo this chapter multiple times before I could manage to get something to top my last chapter. And that, my friends, is what you are reading right now. My pride and joy, the daughter of my imagination! This is the real deal presents:**

**THIS****…**** IS****… ****SPIRIT!**

**Shine! Against all odds, Explode!**

In the west district of town, the Select Corps were assembled, evacuating all the civilians and preparing to charge to the city centre and reclaim medaropolis. Only the city centre and other areas of importance were attacked. For some reason, the 24 hour hop mart was included in the list of important areas. The police, the army, and the Select Corps were all fighting, but none of them had even so much as laid a dent in the bulk of the enemy forces. Three Select Corps members were grouped together with three medabots next to a building that was once the general bank.

One of the Select Corps soldiers was leaning on the wall clutching her side with a bloodied hand. She was dressed in the same mechanized uniforms as her partners, but the helmet was instead shattered on the floor with a broken visor. Her stomach was also bandaged up, stained dark red and both of her legs were too. Her left arm was in a splint and her mangled hair was too badly tended to for anyone to tell what colour it was before turning maroon and red with blood and grime. Her forehead had a blood soaked bandana wrapped around it, the bandana improvising for a bandage. The other two members, both men, were in a similar if not better state. The eldest of the three cleared his throat for attention.

"We have a problem," He said in a commanding, overpowering deep voice. "The whole Gamma squad just got wiped out and reports from the Ghost team are saying that the enemy have secured the City Hall. Five schools have been seized and are being used by the enemy as garrisons. We can't pick off any wanderers anymore. An attack on any of these buildings would do serious damage to property. We need to find a way to storm the school buildings and capture the enemies inside without any casualties to the students who were still in there for after school activities. I need options, and now!"

"Why bother storm the schools?" The female asked with half lidded eyes, only barely conscious. "We just have to take over the mother ship and the whole attack halts. Chop the head off the snake."

"No-can-do private," The Commander replied. "The only way to get to the flying saucer is by plane or helicopter. We'd all be shot down before we even have a chance to board the thing. You know that there's no fighter that's capable of taking that thing down either. You and Air-Ptera got shot down trying!"

"Don't remind me," The girl said through gritted teeth, clenching her fists hard enough to make her palms bleed with her nails. Images of what she thought would be her last few moments kept flashing through her head…

. . .

"_Heading for the mother ship. Requesting permission Commander!"_

"_Permission granted. Blow that thing out of the skies!"_

_A grey fighter jet with a medal pattern painted on its wings shot straight up into the sky, climbing vertically upwards until the engine spluttered and gasped for a break from the throttle._

"_Gear clutched, visors checked, nothing on the heads-up-display. Still at 30% damage. That means 70% shields remain. Everything's good. Engine temperature… Whoa, I've been pulling some serious stunts to have reached that high! How am I even still flying?"_

"_Because I'm here too, Sakura!" The Select Corps pilot, Sakura, looked at the heads up display again. Sure enough, an image of a robotic eagle head stared at her in its blank, expressionless way._

"_I know you're here Air-Hawk! You've been giving me non-stop instructions and support the whole time!"_

"_Yeah, about the advice, want some now? Go down! The bad guys are that way!"_

"_Oh yeah, my bad. I'm new to this, ok? I've never seen so much information in one plane alone. This is too much to take in and fly at the same time!"_

"_Hey, you're still not going dooowwwwnnn!" The jet spiralled clockwise three times before suddenly flipping over onto its back and hanging in the air for about two seconds. Its nose then faced the earth as it darted back down again for its confrontation with the saucer. The clouds all streamed past them as if being sucked by a massive vacuum behind the plane. The plane kept corkscrewing clockwise as it fell, picking up momentum for each couple of feet it dropped._

"_Slow down! Are you trying to make a decorative splat on the ground?"_

"_Hold on, I'm fine." As the plane fell further, an army of flying medabots joined it, all of them Femjets. The sky seemed to almost explode as the Femjets all fired their anti-air missiles at once, all of them aiming at the jet._

"_Air-Hawk, what do I do?"_

"_Relax. Stop spiralling and try to level out. The grey fighter's parts all screeched in protest as the pilot desperately began pulling the clutch back up to level the jet. Slowly, the jet began to ease into a smooth curve to escape the grasp of gravity. But the missiles wouldn't be shaken that easily. "Come on! More, more! We're too close to the ground, we're going to…" At the last moment before impact with the unforgiving skyscrapers, the jet shot back up, spiralled three times, and took a hard banking turn left, just narrowly avoiding the cluster of missiles. The fighter jet kept turning left, attempting to get behind the Femjets. All the Femjet fighters scattered, hoping to avoid the F 40 spitfire combat jet._

_Sakura's jet thrusters flashed a bright iridescent green before blasting off into the distance._

"_Wh-where'd she go?" The Femjet leader asked with a tremble. As if on cue, a blinding flash of light cut through the air, followed by the Femjet getting cut in half, falling to the city streets before exploding in a dazzling display of lights. Sakura made a full 180 degree U-turn and shot to the mass of Femjets, taking them all down with machine guns and missiles. The sky lit up like New Years Eve on the fourth of July as the whole force was wiped out in seconds._

"_Alright! Thanks for the boost Air-Hawk!" Sakura shouted out in delight._

"_Don't thank me, you're the one flying. I'm just in the hatch under the plane!"_

"_Now, the saucer…" Sakura yanked the controls, almost tearing her arm out of her shoulder in the process as a shooting pain crept across her whole body._

"_Hey, are you feeling ok? Your vital signs have seriously dropped and I'm worried."_

"_Don't worry, I'm fine. I just stressed myself too far on that last run. I can still fight." The jet glided over the clouds as it gained altitude, before it shot down again to take on the main saucer. A stream of blue flaming skulls carved their path towards Sakura's jet. Sakura flipped the jet over on its back and slid under the beam, a mere two inches away from death._

"_Careful Sakura-chan, you'll lose too much air!"_

"_A bit late Air-Hawk!" The jet continued flipping as it plummeted towards the earth._

"_Hold on Sakura, I'll fix this!" A panel on the jet's underside opened up to reveal an Air-Ptera curled up inside. The Air-Ptera launched itself into the air and spread its wings before grabbing the spiralling fighter. With practiced ease, the Air-Ptera grabbed hold of one wing and used its whole body like a parachute to catch enough air to slow the plane down. Just before the jet hit the ground, its wings wobbled slightly as control was reasserted. The Jet thrusters lit up again and the jet shot into the sky in a slight less fashionable way._

"_Alright, now let's go!" Medabot and jet both flew side by side towards the main saucer._

"_**Medaforce!"**__ Time seemed to slow down for Sakura as she watched in horror, seeing another skull instantly materialize in front of Air-Hawk, chomping down on him, medaparts and all. The jaws were closing painstakingly slowly, as if trying to torture Sakura with the thought that she was helpless to do anything and Air-Hawk was to fast to stop moving and escape. Her best friend's life was about to be ended right there and then. Sakura's heart kept thumping louder and louder in her own ears, and despite how time was near frozen, her heart was still beating like a freight train late for a delivery. A delivery of death._

_Slowly, without any clear thought on her mind, just fear for her partner's life, Sakura turned the whole jet towards the skull, the questioning snout of the plane pointed towards the skull in an act of desperation. Sakura's heart tripled its insane pace, blocking out all other sound in the world with its repetitive thump-thumping. The nose inched ever closer to the skull, waiting to break through. Just a metre, 50 cm's, ten, five, riiiiggghhhttt, there!_

_The world returned to Sakura in a blazing inferno, no slowmo, no drama, and no Air-Hawk. Only fire and pain. There was still enough time to pick were to crash however. Sakura used the remains of a the wings to tilt the plane towards the head saucer, narrowly avoiding three other massive skulls on the way down._

"_Come on, come on, where is the eject button, Ah!" A glop of burning hot fuel splashed onto Sakura's right hand. She tore her right hand away from the controls, barely containing her horror at the sight of her burning, sizzling hand. Tears were forced away through sheer willpower and the force of the scream trapped inside her throat was pushing against her windpipe, injuring her instead of having her scream away all the pain. The plane kept spiralling, faster and faster, before it finally smashed into the harsh, unforgiving covering of the Saucer. The jet rolled over, losing a part with each impact on the saucer, before it finally rolled off of the saucer completely, smashing into a radio tower and exploding in a fit of sparks as it and the tower collapsed on their descent to the ground. Screams from panic stricken civilians was heard as everyone nearby ran as fast as their legs would allow away from the cascading sheets of falling metal and debris. The plane fell with a crash, flattening itself and everything nearby._

_As the smoke and dust cleared, everyone could see Sakura was nowhere in the wreckage, or not recognizable at least._

"_Phew! That was a close one!" Sakura exclaimed High in the sky, just above the saucer. She was suspended in the air by the Air-Hawk, dangling by her arms. "I thought I was gone for sure!"_

"_Don't worry about it," Air-Hawk said, still holding Sakura's right arm. "I told you, I'm there for you!"_

"_Yeah, save the reunion for later," The commander called out through the intercom "You're freaking me out with your stunts. Do you know how scary it is when a soldier's vital signs go dead but you still hear their voice? Don't get killed!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, that's an order, yes-sir! Right away sir! With a cherry on top sir!" Sakura replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Don't worry doc! I'm fi-"_

_An explosion rang through the air as a barrage of missiles erupted from a whole arsenal of canons on the surface of the saucer. Air-Hawk blasted higher, trying to escape the missiles, with the screams of terror from Sakura accompanying him. Sakura could feel the wind sapping at her strength, draining what was left of her energy, tearing everything away from her as if trying to strip her to a husk. The screams, the tears, they were all yanked and torn out of her wide mouth and pained eyes, her power leaving along with it. Sakura, with an effort, turned her head up towards Air-Hawk's head and tried screaming for him to slow down. It was hopeless. Sound couldn't even reach her eardrums over the freakish howling of the wind. Her eardrums could burst from the air pressure alone as she felt the pressure on her chest becoming more and more unbearable._

"_If the air gets thinner the higher we go, how come my chest feels like it's being crushed by elephants?" she thought to herself, finding it even harder to think from the lack of oxygen. Air-Hawk, noticing the discomfort Sakura was in, slowed down slightly, preparing for a nosedive back to the earth. Within a fraction of a second, the first missile arrived, too close for comfort. Air-Hawk grabbed the missile, trying to make the movement as smooth as possible so as not to set off the missile, and then, knowing just how close he was to death, he swerved his whole body around, releasing the missile in the process and sending it off course and away from himself. His original plan was to launch it back at the other missiles, but realizing that would be impossible without blowing himself up, he figured escaping death was also ok instead of countering it._

_As soon as the missile felt his free hand, he released Sakura and flipped over and away so as not to hear Sakura screaming in terror and frustration, dodging two more missile before flying off again. He swerved, scraping his wings against the wall of clouds before banking hard to his right, escaping eight more missiles as they collided into each other in the attempt to pursue him. Finally, he shot his way down again, stretching out his hand to reach Sakura. His fingertips brushed against Sakura's skin, just inches away from anything he could grab. Just a few inches further would be enough…_

_Five missiles, all at once smashed into Air-Hawk, ripping his wings and everything else into a pitiful state._

_**100% damage to leg medaparts. Functions ceased. 58% damage to right arm. 40% damage to left arm. Scout options disabled.**_

"_Ack! I'm hit! I'm hit! Man down!" Sakura opened her tightly shut eyes to see what looked like Air-Hawk falling in slow motion beside her, with his eyes darker and apparently on standby. "This is it Sakura… I'm sorry I couldn't be a stronger medabot for you…"_

"_Enough with the cheap drama Hawk save me right now!" Sakura was sure she saw a smirk on Air-Hawk's featureless face, as if he was laughing at Sakura's distress. "Not funny Hawk, save meeeeeee!" Air-Hawk barrel rolled back into life and grabbed Sakura under her armpits. Slowly, he levelled out, careful not to pull up too harshly in case he injured Sakura while doing so. As gracefully as a military medabot could be, he pulled completely levelled out while he neared the ground, preparing to land. Sakura stared up at the Saucer in wonder, thinking of how much time and effort must have been put in to construct such a thing. And even more amazing, a whole fleet of them. Just as she was wondering about this, the saucer began to whirr loudly as the machinery underneath toiled on to unleash whatever monstrosity it would._

"_Hey, Hawk? How do you think everybody else is doing? I haven't really talked to anyone since my plane crashed and the com link looks pretty busted after being knocked around everywhere like that."_

"_I dunno. Maybe we should check on them. We're not making any progress."_

"_Yeah. We haven't even laid a dent in that thing's armour." Air-Hawk glided lower to the ground to get a better look at the situation. Sakura peered down at the wreckage below. Her whole body locked up and a prickly, tingling feeling leapt across her spine, paralysing her nerves as it made its journey towards her brain. It hit its mark, was registered in her mind, and classified, as extreme shock with a mixture of an impossible terror. Cold sweat broke out across her whole body; all thought was erased from her mind and replaced with basic instincts. Run, run now!_

"_Air-Hawk!"_

"_Oh my-"_

"_Air Hawk! Tell me what happened!"_

_The entire fighting force, the tanks, the troops, the mortars, the helicopters, all of them were gone. Completely annihilated. An entire force of sixty men and women, all expertly trained, gone. And not just that, the buildings were all demolished too. Four city blocks blown apart with nothing but rogue medabots scurrying around, scavenging what items of use they could find._

"_They did this?" Air-Hawk squealed in a high pitched squeaky voice, unable to speak properly due to the shock of the attack. "In the time we were in the sky? We just saw them alive and well ten minutes ago! All gone?"_

"_Hawk, run away, now! If they catch us here, we're finished!" Air-Hawk's boosters lit up again as he prepared for lift-off._

"_Where do you think you're going?" A voice snarled from the air. Air Hawk stopped dead in mid flight as he saw, supposedly standing in mid-air, five medabots, none of them with wings, just staring with glowing green eyes. The sun was to their backs, getting in Sakura's eyes, blinding her so she couldn't see their true forms. Just their silhouettes. Air-Hawk scrambled backwards, holding on tightly to Sakura's wrist as he turned to flee. The second he pulled off the 180 degrees spin, he crashed straight into a mass of steel. Air-Hawk backed off and chanced a glance upwards to see the face of another medabot. Before he could properly see what it looked like, a fist was rammed into his gut, passing too close to Sakura's torso. Air-Hawk's eyes flashed red and went wider than ever as oil began spewing out of cracks in his steel armour. Sparks started appearing on his arms and thrusters as he struggled to stay afloat and hold up Sakura at the same time. His grip slackened, as did his fighting spirit as he realized he stood no chance of winning in his condition._

"_Air-Hawk! Get outta-"another medabot appeared underneath Sakura as if he or she had always been there. It grabbed Sakura's legs and yanked her out of Air-Hawk's grip, taking full advantage over Air-Hawk's lapse in conviction and lost strength. Sakura's mouth stretched wide open as more screams left her, releasing even more energy and sapping her strength. Air-Hawk was occupied trading blows with the large medabot and couldn't do a thing about Sakura._

"_No way! I can't die here!" Sakura screamed out in defiance, kicking and screaming at her captor. The medabot ignored her completely and kept on flying to the ground, planning on smashing her against the asphalt road. "Hey-hey, what are you doing? You can't-"The asphalt erupted as the two smashed into the rock, shooting high into the sky like water in a splash. Sakura wasn't even given enough time to scream before her body was smashed into the rock, and effectively, smashed into pieces. Sakura couldn't even feel it. She could see it all happening. The person's body fly through the air, her hair billowing in the breeze as her helmet flew off, a smashed, twisted wreck. The landing, medabot first, creating jagged rocks on impact, and then the person getting smashed onto one, and the crushed by another rock. No. A medabot. Air-Hawk. She could see the persons whole body contort in pain, the spit flying from the person's mouth as she let out another scream. The horror and agony on her face as she again realized her helplessness. The sight of the Air-Ptera getting shredded to pieces against the rocks and chinks of pavement before his medal finally ejected._

_The damage metre beeping out results just fell on deaf ears as Sakura watched her reflection dying. All the while, she was incapable of feeling anything. Devoid of any emotions, not even her feelings were ruffled._

_As hard as a rock, she watched herself die._

_. . ._

"-I'm amazed you two are still alive actually," The Commander continued, not noticing the kind of trance that Sakura was in as she recalled events. "Any normal person would have died just trying to escape those missiles, yet you kept fighting even without a jet! You should get a promotion, right Sakura? Sakura? Are you there? Sa-ku-ra, speak!"

"Huh, what? Oh, sorry chief. Just remembering something. I know we can't attack it head on, but what are we getting the schools for? They won't help us, will they?"

"Evacuating the children from that area is our top priority. Remember, it's not about beating everyone up; it's about protecting the peace. No matter how strong you are, you're useless to the Select Corps if you can't even protect people. That's whole reason most of us joined. To protect the world, our friends, our families. Our children."

"Commander, is there something else you're not telling us?"

"…"

Sakura looked at him in annoyance, expecting answers for another battle when she had just come out of the fight as the sole survivor from her original squad.

"Commander, no matter what you say, I can't fight in my condition unless you give me a real reason to fight."

"Well then don't."

"What?"

"You're too badly injured to fight anyway. I was gonna tell you not to fight anyway if you chose to come. You really thought I'd take you with us for this next battle?"

"But I can still fight!"

"And you think I care? Newbies like you are meant to follow orders, that's all! Don't try to be a hero about it!"

"Commander…"

"If you have to know, my son is in that city. A lot of troops still have family in there! If we were even strong enough to blow up the main saucer, the crash landing would be enough to kill all the survivors! We have to get the people out of there first!"

"Your son? Wait, I didn't notice before but, you're Officer Jyouzo Tenryou?"

"You bet I am! One of the best officers there is too!"

"So your son is… Ikki Tenryou? And you think he's in the city?"

"Yup. He said he was going to some robattle in town. He could only be here. But that's not all. We cleared out all the civilians already and the city should be free of any more people, but when we secured the schools, it was attacked by a massive wave of kilobots. The school was our first target to save everyone, but now that we've lost it, we cannot guarantee everyone will escape safely. The Select Corps reputation as the heroes of the city is at stake here, but so are the lives of thousands of students and staff. We have to go!

"Sadly, you don't have a plane to pilot and your medabot is in rubbish condition. You wouldn't be able to fight at all like that."

Sakura's rage kept building inside as she remembered that hopeless feeling of being useless. The darkest recesses of her mind that contained all the anger and rage had already been shattered by those rogue medabots, but now it was leaking out again at the thought of being useless to her team-mates as well. It built up like a tsunami at a dam until finally, the gates her mind opened in fury.

"Are you saying I can't fight because I'm a girl? You think I don't cut it?"

"What? No, no, nothing like that! You're just-"

"A girl! That's right, I'm just a girl! No real power, or skill, or talent that is useful in this situation, well stuff it! I'm going after your kids and I'm gonna save them, whether you like it or not!"

"You can't even stand up straight!" Sakura wobbled on her shaky legs, barely able to get back onto her feet after all she went through.

"I'll make it up, just try me!" A massive boom shook through the air followed by a dragon like roar. Everyone turned their heads to a spot in the far off distance where birds of all kind were scattering away from.

"Officer Jyouzo, it looks like our new target it there if that's what I think it is."

"You may be right, you may be wrong. But I can hear something."

"You can hear what?"

"Heh-heh. That noise, it's a voice. Listen closely to it, you may just hear something." Sakura listened again to a second roar. Her eyes widened as she assessed the situation.

"Commander Tenryou…"

"Yup! You can hear it too!"

**Dude… I rock!"**

**Completed! First I must say, thanks to the people who decided to take time off their reading schedules and actually REVIEW! 14 Reviews mean I'm getting better! However, I'm still nowhere near as good as some of the other FF authors out there, and some of you guys probably also have great fics you're working on. If any of you have ANY piece of advice to offer, or as I said in an earlier fic, characters to add which you would like to see in this fic, just tell me, whether by PM or in a review. I will gladly accept any advice or constructive criticism given and try to use it to help my writing. I will also give advice to anyone who asks of it. Either way, thanks for reviewing! And anyone who hasn't, review to say whether you like this fic, or if you think it's garbage. Constructive criticism doesn't kill; it just adds more strength to my arsenal!**

**This is my mindset when writing, inspired from the first pokemon theme song:**

**I'm gonna be the very best, like no one ever was/**

**To fight them is my real test; to beat them is my cause!**


	11. Where's the Reinforcements?

**I hope you guys enjoyed my Select Corps special. I felt I wanted to get into what they were doing. Despite being the protectors of the peace, they are so often overlooked. But maybe it's because they're useless in the games. Either way, it also served to get me back in gear again to write at my full potential! Advice is much appreciated. Disclaimer: Don't own medabots, belongs to Natsume, Imagineer, etc. Plot is mine. OCs are mine except for Akiroshi, Akiana, and Rokshi. Those belong to Medapokeyyugiobanpucca fan, or Akia. This IS the REAL DEAL!**

**This is the real deal presents:**

**This****…****is****…****SPIRIT!**

**Mr Referee: Last time, Ikki, Koji, Ginkai, and Zuru had been cornered by a group of modified Robo-Emperors and were running for their lives. Their medabots proved to be no match at all for the terrifying power of Robo-Emperor, and even with reinforcements, they were powerless against their might. Meanwhile, the Select Corps have been waging a far more conspicuous war with the invasion force, and despite the numerous odds and countless deafest, their bravery could possible be the only reason that civilians are escaping in one piece. Sakura, a new Select Corps member, was badly defeated by a group of five elite medabots, making an important discovery on the top leaders of the invasion army. But who are these enigmatic five? And can Miss Nae's group of medafighters really stand up to them? And what's happened to Ikki and Metabee, who are stuck under a ton of rubble? All these will be answered in this chapter:**

**Chapter 11: Where's the reinforcements?  
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"_**I will never loooooosssseeeee!"**_

**. . .  
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_Where am I? What happened to me? Everything's so dark, I can't see anything. I can hear voices. I can't tell who's though. Erika? Karen? There's another one. Metabee? _

Ikki tried peering through the fog that was clouding his mind, but to no avail. His head was still spinning from the impact he had taken from his fight with the Robo-Emperors. Slowly, the fog started clearing as he fully regained consciousness. Jumbles of swirling colours were in front of him as he tried to make out shapes he could recognize. Voices kept flitting through his head as he stared up at them. It was almost like he was going to die. Ikki chuckled weakly at the thought of actually beating Koji, at being the first one to go.

_Ah man, I really thought that we could make it all the way to the end together, all of us, robattling as a team. Ginkai, Zuru, Banjo, Karen, Koji, Erika, Metabee… Everyone, we all did our best. But now I've gotta go. I hope, mom can take care of Metabee for me…_

"C'mon Ikki, I promised Miss Nae that you'd come back alive!"

_Windsail? I wish that I could've spent more time with you before…_

"You can't die until I beat you in a robattle myself!"

_Koji, looks like you're not getting your robattle…_

"C'mon fight was too awesome for you to die in!"

_Ginkai, it's a good thing you're on our side with Arc-Dash…_

"Don't lose to yourself Ikki, champions never lose!"

_Banjo? Who would've thought that you'd end up on our side? Things change don't they…_

"Have faith in yourself Ikki, we all have faith in you."

_Zuru? Always the same. That last comment sure was as clear as mud. Getting all Zen on me…_

"Ikki, please, just… just don't die on us!"

_Erika? The oldest friend I can ever remember having. Is she actually crying? Erika never cries. Or at least not since Belmont got sick. I really will… miss everyone._

"**Yo, Ikki, you can wake up now"**

_What the… _an intense, excruciating pain shot through his skull and along through his entire body. His vision flashed with bright white light for less than a second before he flashed back awake, fully aware of his surroundings.

"AAAAAAAAAAA THAT HUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRTTT!"

"Well you weren't waking up! What else could I have done?!" the familiar semi-robotic tone of Metabee's voice screeched and rang out across the remains of the tunnel.

"You're not meant to smash my head in! I'm nearly dead and you should punch me? Your fist is made of metal, that's like a metal club or brass knuckles!" Ikki was writhing around on the floor holding an unreasonably large bump on his head with Metabee standing next to him screaming out his reasons at him.

"Well that's gratitude for ya," Metabee huffed. "I bring you back from the dead and this is how you repay me?"

"You nearly SENT me to the dead, why would I thank you?" Everyone who was nearby stared at them, incredulous at the turn of events and absolutely speechless, their jaws hanging open and eyes peeled wide open.

"Come on, spill the beans, why'd ya do it?" Ikki yelled as he recovered.

"To wake you up! You needed a hand. You were just wasted there, nearly dead!"

"So you tried to snuff me out yourself?"

"De ja vu, where have I heard that line before? You're jacking my best lines!"

"Please, you can't even call that a line if you said it in such a pathetic state."

"What? I guess you're one to talk! You try fighting Arcbeetle and thinking of something good to say at the same time!"

Erika slowly walked towards the two people arguing.

"Hey Ikki, Metabee, are you two trying…" The two stopped momentarily to look at Erika. Her eyes were shadowed over by her hair, giving her a dark, menacing quality to her indiscriminating gaze. Chills ran down Metabee's tin-pet and Ikki's face turned pale enough to see right through it.

"Uh, Erika, what are you doing?"

"Hey, Erika, chill out," Erika raised both of her fists up.

"**ARE YOU TWO TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK!?"** Both of her fists came down at the same time on the back of Ikki and Metabee's heads at the same time, smashing their faces straight through the concrete in a random burst of power. **"And here I was actually worried about you and Metabee should just come and hit you and you wake up like nothing happened? Do you even have a shred of empathy for any of your friends!?" **During the whole speech, Erika kept repeatedly hammering Ikki and Metabee deeper into the ground in a flurry of uncontrolled beatings. Everyone was still too flabbergasted to do or say anything about it.

"He… he was alive?" Koji stuttered, barely believing it.

"Well he won't be for long after Erika's through with him," Ginkai forced out of his mouth, fearing an attack on any of themselves.

"Calm down Erika,"

"Erika, just calm down… and stop hitting me!" Ikki got up during a temporary break in Erika's violence, leaving Metabee incapacitated on the ground.

"**You jerk! It's like you don't even care about how worried everyone was over you!"**

"Hey Erika, what do you-" a sharp clap echoed through the ruins of the tunnel, bouncing off the walls, reverberating unaccompanied, relaying its message to the people inside. Erika's open hand hovered in the air, slightly red. The same colour as the side of Ikki's face, the same spot that the slap had connected. Ikki turned his head to face Erika, ignoring the stinging sensation as it crossed his face, burning under his skin. "Erika…" a single teardrop hit the floor, splashing on the ground, dropping the weight of Erika's feelings with it. Another tear soon followed. Ikki looked into Erika's eyes, questioning what was wrong. Tears were streaming down Erika's face freely, with no sign of stopping.

"I was scared, Ikki," Erika said, choking on her own tears. "I was scared that you were actually… going to die. We're all risking our lives to protect this city, we're risking our lives to fight these guys, just like we always have. But now, it's different. Everything's way more dangerous, it's not a robattle anymore, it's a war! People _die _in wars Ikki! I don't think you've noticed, but this is serious! Trying to show your robattle spirit here isn't enough!"

"Erika, what are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying… I might be too confused to understand myself right now, but I'm saying that I don't wanna lose you yet Ikki. You were the first real friend I ever had, the oldest one I have, the one I've been with through everything together. You're… you're my Nakama!"

"Nakama?"

"Nakama. A friend and partner that you'll stick with through thick and thin. Someone's Nakama is almost like they're family. I don't want anybody to die, but if you went down first, you'd let everyone who was counting on you down, including me! I don't want anyone to die yet, so please, if you truly are my Nakama, be careful. Please!"

Ikki stared deeply into Erika's maroon eyes, staring into her pleading look as more tears flowed down her cheeks. Something inside Ikki stirred as he realised how much he was worrying everyone.

_By getting into that fight with the Robo-Emperor's I'd made Erika burst into tears. Am I trying too hard to be a hero? I have lots of friends; shouldn't I rely on them more? Maybe I should have stopped to think my plan through instead of dragging everyone down with me. I'm such a failure as a medafighter. Erika… I can't believe I did this to you. Getting you down to this state from my actions, It's hard to believe._

Ikki clenched his fists tightly into balls, his determination returning along with a little spirit. Unclenching his fists, he gently held Erika's hands in his own and looked deeper into her eyes, as if searching for the right words to reach her.

"Erika, I can't promise that I'll be able to stay safe, but I can say, that I will NOT die in a place like this. I don't want to get on anyone's nerves anymore, but most of all, I don't want to see you cry ever again. So I'll make this promise. As long as I'm still standing, as long as Metabee still functions, you'll never have to cry again. That's a promise that only goes to Nakama!" The two stared at each other like this for a few more seconds, understanding just how important this was to the both of them. Finally, they clasped both of their hands together, sealing the deal with a tiny smile before letting go.

"Hate to burst the love fest…" Metabee butted in with what would be a mischievous grin.

"**WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!" **both Ikki and Erika screamed at Metabee, almost knocking him over just by screaming at him. Two punches later, Metabee resumed speaking.

"Hate to break it to ya, but we've got company!" Everyone turned to face where Metabee was pointing. A fleet of Femjets were charging for the group of medafighters along with seven upgraded Robo-Emperors.

"It would be wise to fall back now," Roks said as he began transforming into action mode for Zuru. "We need everybody else to help us win this battle."

"No, not yet," Koji said. "If we run back to everyone else, we'll just lead these guys to them. Besides, we don't even know where they are."

"So what? We have to beat these guys up?" Ginkai cut in, cracking his knuckles while Arc-Dash polished his guns.

"No, too many of them," Ikki said bluntly. "We've got to get rid of the Robo-Emperors first, then we can fight the rest of them."

"Explain how to do that, supposed leader," Windsail said sarcastically, despite that she was admitting to herself that Ikki actually was thinking of a plan.

"We've gotta get to the river, lets go!" Without question, everyone got on their medabots and ran or flew as fast as they could towards the river, with the army chasing after them. Engines roared as they kicked into life, straining to escape the beasts that were pursuing them.

"Hey guys," Ikki began speaking, almost ignoring the enemies behind him. "What happened for me to get like that? After getting crushed, I can't remember a thing."

"Nobody's really sure." Zuru said, barely dodging a laser that passed close by

"We were all running for our lives when we heard Metabee shouting out his famous catchphrase. Metabee says he can't remember either, but when we came back, we saw all of the Robo-Emperor's shut down, and Metabee's medal on the floor. The other Robo-Emperors that were after us got scared and ran off with the medals of their partners. You were barely breathing."

"Less talking, more running!" Metabee screamed out as a missile blasted him and Ikki up, almost sending them off course.

The group were burning rubber as they neared the river from which their school was named after.

"Alright Ikki, what do we do now?" Koji asked, looking back at the air force chasing them.

"You, Ginkai, and Zuru wil fight them off here and keep them distracted. The rest of us will get to the nearest radio tower. When I call you, you guys have to lure them upstream to where I tell you. You got that?"

"Don't sweat it, all we have to do is blow them apart, right?" Ginkai said as he brought his medawatch up to his face. "I got it!" The larger group ran upstream with Ikki and Metabee trailing at the back.

"We're counting on you guys!" Ikki shouted back to them.

"Yeah, if you guys blow it, we're all done for!" Metabee added before leaving as well. The smaller decoy group stood there watching for a few seconds before facing the oncoming wave of Mega-Emperors.

"Don't hog all the glory Ginkai," Koji said with a superior grin. "You thought you could take my place as the best as soon as I left, didn't you? Don't get cocky, ordinary people can't hope to match the power of one as superior as myself."

"You don't have any experience fighting kilobots, these guys will mop the floor with you."

"You think I don't know what they can do? Third rate pieces of scrap metal don't scare me!"

"Hey guys," Zuru said quietly. "People are attacking; we need to fight, now!"

All three of the medafighters stood back to back with their medabots in front of them.

"Alright you two," Ginkai said. "Koji takes 10,000, Zuru takes 10,000, and I take the remaining 55,000!"

"No way!" Koji said. "Leave 65,000 to me, you guys take 5,000 each!"

"You two relax," Zuru said, acting surprisingly smug. "Just leave them all to me."

"Just decide on something!" Arc-Dash yelled. "Even 25,000 split, fair?"

"**Agreed!" **Just then, the Robo-Emperors attacked.

"Arc-Dash, action mode!"

"Tyrellbeetle, action mode!"

"Sumilidon, tag team with Zuru's Roks!" Like lightning, Sumilidon and Roks leaped across the heads of all the Robo-Emperor's and landed in a ring of them. Roks leaped into the air and while there, Sumilidon grabbed his legs and spun him rapidly around in circles like a hammer, clearing all the Robo-Emperors. At full speed, Sumilidon let go and sent Roks flying through the air, cutting through a line of Robo-Emperors along the way. Meanwhile, Tyrellbeetle hammered two Robo-Emperor's heads at the same time, smashing their heads together. Arc-Dash then jumped over Tyrellbeetle's head and punched both of the Robo-Emperors hard in the face, sending them toppling backwards over twenty feet into a crowd of Robo-Emperors. While in the air, Arc-Dash front flipped, an impressive feat for someone so heavy, and while in the air, transformed into his tank-like form to land on a Robo-Emperor. Tyrellbeetle then slid through a Robo-Emperor's cord like legs and while spinning around on his back trying to show off, transformed into his tank-like form.

Together, Ginkai and Zuru barked out more orders.

"Tyrellbeetle, Meda-Combo!"

"Arc-Dash, Meda-Combo" Arc-Dash ramped over a knocked out Robo-Emperor, smashing into another one in the process. Tyrellbeetle drove around a bunch of angry rampaging Robo-Emperors, just barely avoiding missiles along the way. He skidded sideways around a group of them and stopped just underneath Arc-Dash. They slammed together, Arc-Dash's wheels clasping onto the top of Tyrellbeetle.

"Alright, I'm invincible!" Arc-Dash and Tyrellbeetle said as one voice, now mixed into one personality. Taking it in turns to speak from Arc-Dash to Tyrellbeetle, they spoke.

"In this form we are more…"

"…than just two medabots together."

"Our very medals…"

"…are connected and fused…"

"…together as one!"

"We…"

"Are…"

"**Masterbeetle!"**

Sumilidon and Roks turned around to look at the Masterbeetle.

"It looks like we actually might win!" Roks said with a newfound hope.

"Sumilidon, don't let your guard down!" Koji interrupted. Sumilidon quickly turned back to face his opponent, just to meet five missiles blasting him clean off his feet and into Roks. Both of them flew back, flying into a Robo-Emperor's mouth as it was charging up it's devastating Death-break attack. The Robo-Emperor fired its mouth blast, ripping chunks of armour off of Roks and Sumilidon.

"Masterbeetle, assist them." Zuru commanded.

"**Right, I'm on it!" **He said, sounding slightly more like Tyrellbeetle then revved up to full speed, charging through enemies, knocking Robo-Emperor's aside like bowling pins. Pulling a full 180 turn, he charged back towards Sumilidon and Roks. He charged straight into a Robo-Emperor's legs, snapping a lot of cords in the process and locking themselves together.

"**Oh, and by the way, it's THE Masterbeetle!" **He said, sounding more like Arc-Dash this time. Lightning arced between Arc-Dash and Tyrellbeetle's horns, sending enough electricity through Robo-Emperor to see his tin-pet. Masterbeetle kept driving through, bulldozing through Robo-Emperors like they were paper, attaching more of them to their devastating horns. Two… three… four… five Robo-Emperor's were being run through, barely given a chance to move as circuits fried.

"Sumilidon, Shadow Sword on the rest of them!" Sumilidon flipped sideways over in the air, swinging his sword arm around wildly preparing to smash a group of Robo-Emperors.

"Roks, demolition mode!" Roks flew up into the sky, transforming into a hovercraft like form.

"Not so fast…" A barrage of missiles hammered themselves into Roks, blasting him out of the skies. Sumilidon finished up the last Robo-Emperor and turned to face the assailant. A laser shot straight through Sumilidon's shoulder, frying the central wires driving through his left arm. Masterbeetle drove through a storm of enemies in a blind rage, just to be shot down by what seemed like one hundred missiles.

**Warning. Left arm damage to Sumilidon 100%. Function's ceased. Chain reaction. 75% damage to head. Hunting disruptor near critical condition.**

**Warning. All Roks' functions between 60% and 70%. Caution is advised.**

**Masterbeetle axis stressed to limits. Appendix at 50% damage. Medal connection cords damaged. Pipeline at 40% damage. Medalias merging fluid leaking. Tyrellbeetle overall damage at 80%. Arc-Dash overall damage at 82%. Demo-fusion attack offline.**

"What's happening?" Koji screamed as he looked around the field to find the new enemies.

"We are not… alone," Roks gasped out clutching his side.

"**Come on! Bring it! Whoever you are, you're no match for The Masterbeetle! From the Capital THE to the mega sized MAST…" **Two more missiles flew at The Masterbeetle, blasting both medabots apart. Tyrellbeetle rolled over on the floor multiple times before stopping dead just before the river, and Arc-Dash went rocketing backwards into Roks, knocking him back off of his feet. Just then, five crates fell from the sky, overflowing with Mega-Emperors jam packed together like sardines. They all scrambled over eachother in a desperate attempt to escape the crates until the crates exploded outward from the force, splintering and sending wooden shrapnel flying.

"Roks, are you alright? Tyrellbeetle, hold strong!"

"Sumilidon, speak to me!"

"Hey Arc-Dash, don't die on me yet!"

The Mega-Emperors assailed everyone with more missiles, destroying buildings and parked cars while doing so. Dirt was tossed high into the air with each explosion, with the dust threatening to block out what little sunlight there was left. The smoke and dust choked everyone, burning the back of their throats as they gasped for breath.

"This isn't good… We've gotta escape!" Ginkai said between coughs and strangles gasps.

"What's taking Ikki so long?" Koji said, panicking at the thought of never seeing daylight again. Or worse, Ikki meeting Karen before him. **(Hey, do I keep changing the spelling for Karen's name from Karen to Karin? Sorry if I do. I try my best!) **Roks sliced an incoming missile in half, desperately trying to save himself from another hit. Tyrellbeetle slowly stood up, reorienting himself. Arc-Dash was firing out of all six of his hand canons at once, singeing everything around him. Zuru looked in horror as one by one, their medabots were overrun by the incoming forces, almost oblivious to the missiles flying dangerously close to himself.

"Zuru, look out!" Ginkai dived towards Zuru, knocking the breath out of him. Zuru felt the air rushing out of his guts, followed by an overwhelming force pushing him firther away. He almost blacked out by the force of the explosion, and he was certain his ears would never be the same again after that blast.

"What happened?" He asked Ginkai as soon as they got up.

"These guys are really after our heads. They know that if we're dead, our medabots are just ordinary soldiers. Don't forget, this isn't a fight we can win. We were just meant to hold them off until Ikki gives the signal."

"Ok. Roks…" A streaking red line shot through the ground in front of them, singeing the fringe of Zuru's hair. "No, I can't…" Three Mega-Emperors fired three bombs each at Zuru and Ginkai, blowing up massive chunks of land with each shot. "…Give out orders! My watch isn't working anymore, it's smashed to pieces!"

A Mega-Emperor charged up a huge blue electric ball in front of its antennae.

"Sumilidon, lets go!" Sumilidon picked himself up off the floor and almost instantly disappeared. Koji disappeared along with him. They both reappeared on Mega-Emperor's torso, ripping out its antennae with their bare hands. Koji immediately jumped off of him while Sumilidon kept ripping at the Mega-Emperors face like a frenzied wildcat. The electric ball it was charging began pulsing and releasing random bursts of electricity. The ball slowly turned from red, to blue, to green, preparing to annihilate everyone, now away from the malfunctioning Mega-Emperor's command.

"It's going nuclear!" Koji screamed.

"If that thing goes off, we're meda-history!" Arc-Dash yelled out.

"We'll be blown off the face of this planet," Roks said in complete hopelessness.

"Well Zuru, You're the 'mystery medafighter,' got any plans?" Ginkai asked. Sweat was dropping down Ginkai's neck in torrents as he desperately looked for an escape. Zuru racked his brains for some kind of solution, but he just kept coming back to the large energy ball in front of him.

"It's hopeless…"

"What?" Everyone, including the medabots exclaimed, wishing that they hadn't heard someone admitting defeat. Zuru crumpled to the floor in despair.

"It's over. We won't last long like this…"

"_Zuru, Ginkai! Koji, somebody answer this thing!"_

Ginkai opened up what looked like a small laptop to check who was calling. A picture of Ikki's face appeared on it.

"Ikki? You don't know how glad we are to hear from you!"

"_From him? What about someone reliable?"_

"Windstorm huh? Well we don't really care right now, we're in trouble!"

"_Relax, we've got this," _an unknown voice replied as the image on the screen shut off.

"Huh? Who is this? What's with the screen?"

"_Ignore the little 'technical' issues here and listen up. Get upstream and leave those little fishes to us!"_

"And who are you?!"

"_Ginkai, work with him," _Windstorm said. _"I don't like him, but he's actually help. Just go upstream and we'll handle it from there…_

. . .

**Some time before…**

"We're counting on you guys!"

"Yeah, if you blow it, we're all done for!"

Ikki and Metabee turned around, ignoring the fighting going on behind them and drove after everyone else. Once catching up, Ikki began explaining the plan.

"Robo-Emperors are massive weapon type medabots, right?"

"Right." Everyone replied in unison.

"And their finishing move is the death-break attack, which just so happens to make things heavier at the same time, right?"

"Right."

"So I thought, that if we could get them between the radio tower and the river, and somehow get them to use the deathbreak on the radio tower, we could then knock over the tower and smash them into the river!"

"Sooooo use the tower like a battering ram?" Windsail said, sceptical of the whole plan.

"Yup, that's pretty much it." Windsail flew all the way down and began repeatedly smashing Ikki's head, almost tossing Erika off of her in the process.

"You dummy! Idiot! Baka! Aho! Chitsiru…" After mentioning idiot in several more different languages she continued without even stopping. "I thought you came up with some serious master plan!"

"The best plans are the most simple?"

"So we're no better than before huh?"

"Don't say that! At least we know how to beat them!"

"And what happens when we meet more of them and there's no river OR radio towers? What do we do then?"

"We survive, and kick some meda-butt!" Metabee yelled with excitement. "Who's with me?"

An explosion went off towards the group's right. "Oh-oh…"

The ground a few paces to their right exploded outward, revealing what looked like a grey mole like medabot with yellow tape. Scores more of them dug out of the hole with it.

**Digmole: MDC**

**Medafighter: Invasion force**

**Specialty: Digging**

**Medal type: Knight medal**

**Signature: Shield blockade**

Totalizers and Digmoles flooded out onto the streets, and then to the river banks where the kids and medabots were, trying to push them into the river or drag them under ground. Ikki looked straight on, ignoring the dust flying high, attacking his eyes. Metabee swirved around potholes being created from exploding Digmole tunnels, barely surviving each time. Windstorm scanned the air for anything suspicious in the skies. Her eyes flashed their enigmatic purple color as they searched for either Femjets or the radio tower. Far off in the distance, a red and white tower winked at her, beckoning them to shelter from the storm of medabots.

"Hey Ikki, to the north, I see one!"

"Thanks Windsail! But… where's north?" Erika slapped her forehead thinking of all the sarcastic answers she could give him. Deciding to be nice, she ignored the comment.

"Ikki, every medawatch advance has a compass, use it!" Everyone looked at their compasses and headed north. The tower was just in view, beckoning them to go faster.

"Come on Metabee, hurry before those moles get us!"

"I'm trying, I'm trying! Don't complain, you're not the one running!"

"You're driving Metabee, not running!" The group skidded to a halt at the foot of the tower. The medafighters leaped off of the medabots and together they ran their. Brass frowned slightly, even with blank expression

"Hey, did anyone just feel a little earth…" The ground underneath them exploded in a display of dirt and dynamite. A large green medabot leaped out of the ground, roaring and screaming like some kind of beast. It looked a lot like Tyrellbeetle, without the horns, and way more bulky. It was green with massive shoulder pads and a brick painting on its torso. Everyone stared at their medawatches for info, but nothing happened.

**Insufficient data for info. **Metabee looked up at the colossus.

"Yo, who are you?" The large green fighting medabot looked down on Metabee. Metabee was only a bit more than half his size. The medabot stared down at Metabee with a smugness in his eyes. He Turned around and with a slight wave of his hand, knocked down a whole three story building.

"Come back when you're stronger" He said, almost indifferent. A group of Robo Emperors dug out of the ground, aiming for the group, covering his slow escape.

Metabee shot two seeker missiles at the Mega-Emperors, just to see them get sliced in half by lasers. Komandog stepped forward and brought up one arm. He fired his left arm canon, blasting it straight into a Mega-Emperor's canon. The whole arm blew to pieces scattering like fireworks. More Mega-Emperors just clambered over the destroyed body of the Mega-Emperor.

"This doesn't look good," Erika said worriedly. "It looks like we're done for!"

"**Think again!"** Everyone turned their heads to the source of the voice.

"You ready, Aokshi? Alright, go!" A red flash shot rhough the air, taking out two Mega-Emperors.

"AOKSHI, USE THE RED BLAZE!" A red medabot with white eyes and a gray spot on his chest released a red light hitting a Mega-emperor in the chest. The Mega-Emperor went flying backwards into a car, bursting into flames. More Mega-Emperors fired random barrages of missiles at the medabot in a mad frenzy. The medabot evaded them all like a ninja, barely taking any hits and occasionally kicking a Mega-Emperor.

"Whoa, that medabot's got some serious moves!" Metabee said as he watched another Mega-Emperor cease functioning.

"**Now it's time Aokshi**, **use the power of the lost medal**, **YIN N' YANG MEDA FORCE!"**

A super massive white and black medaforce came hurtling out of the medabot's hands before anyone could even see it charge up. The attack sped along like a tempest, unexpected, annihilating a whole wave of medabots down before they could even land on the ground to robattle. A female medafighter appeared next the red medabot just as it finished releasing the attack. The entire river bank was carved in a swirling pattern like a giant screw had been run sideways along the ground. The medafighter smiled slightly as she nearly collapsed from fatigue.

"That's the bond I have with Aokshi… The Yin n' Yang medaforce…" A third red and grey ninja medabot jumped down from out of nowhere to catch the medafighter before she collapsed.. Everyone was awestruck at the way an entire two waves of Mega-Emperors were cleared in seconds. It wasn't like they hadn't seen better, or that they couldn't have handled it, but the way they were all taken out so fast, even if the medafighter fainted, was almost unbelievable. Medawatch data flashed on the red ninja medabot.

**Akiroshi, a.k.a Aokshi: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Akiana Tenryuo**

**Specialty: Red Blaze**

**Medal type: Lost Medal**

**Signature: Yang medaforce**

Erika looked at Ikki.

_Tenryou? As in Ikki Tenryou? Is this a coincidence? Or is this actually…_

Erika's medawatch flashed again.

"Hey guys, my medwatch is beeping again."

"That's weird, Ikki said absent mindedly as he watched the new arrivals walk towards them, with the medafighter being supported. "My medawatch already scanned both medabots. It can't get data on the other one since he left almost instantly, but I have Akiroshi."

"Wait, it's for the girl."

"Huh?"

**Name: Akiana. Medaborg. Human with robotic cyborg medabot implants.**

**Medafighter: Her own medafighter no watch needed**

**Specialty: Upgrade**

**Medal Type: Lost Medal**

**Signature: Yin Medaforce.**

"She's a cyborg?!" Metabee asked in bewilderment. "That's totally freaking me out!"

"You know I'm right here, right?" She said with slight malicious intent as she sat down next to Ikki. "So, Ikki, you got a medabot?"

"Yeah, his name's Metabee. He's a real pain sometimes, but he's awesome anyway."

"Hey!" Metabee cut in, getting worked up into a rage.

"I also have Windsail over here. She doesn't have her usual parts so she's not as strong as Metabee, but she makes up for it by being more sensible than him.

"Watch it!"

"You have a medabot too? He looks soooo cool when compared to this bucket of bolts here."

"Oh, so it's like that now!" Metabee flared up more. Akiana stared at Metabee with a slightly interested look. Metabee stopped and tried looking away, slightly embarrassed. "Hey, I know I rock but, it's a bit uncomfortable to have someone stare at me like that!" Akia ignored it.

"KBT model 50, serial number… custom made. Interesting choice. I heard KBT types are to stationary, not good in a full on fire fight, need cover and strategys. Not good for you if you're in a pinch."

"Believe me, Metabee was the perfect choice for me. There's nobody better suited to my style of robattling!"

"So now I'm just a tool? A decoration? I see you've started war Ikki, you want fire? I'll give you fire!"

"Now isn't the time," Aokshi said, pointing towards more Mega-Emperors.

"Leave these ones to me," Akia said getting up to fight, but almost stumbling over again. Aokshi stopped her from falling over.

"Stay back and rest, I can't robattle if your share of the medaforce is damaged. You must rest."

"But I can't leave Ikki to fight alone!"

"He's not alone," Metabee cut in. "He's got me with him too. Remember, a medabot and medafighter are one person, Ikki can never fight alone, even if he tried!"

"Thanks Metabee, but I've got something else for you to do that doesn't involve dying."

"What? And after that inspiring speech? And you're now on your own? Nah man, get real."

"I need you and Windsail to cut the base of the tower. Melt it down, cut it up, smash it, anything to make it unsteady enough to fall into the river."

"So who'll fight?"

"Helllooooo? Are you forgetting me?" Erika butt in. "I've also got a medabot, remember? I'm pretty useful! And this gives me a chance to get some killer shots for the school newspaper!"

"I won't let you down Erika," Brass said, polishing her guns.

"Drron't frorrget, I stirl promised Tak I'd rreeturrn bark safery, and that I'd be verrry brrarve. I'rr fight too!"

"What's that doggy?" Windsail cut in with a hand to where her ear should have been "I can't hear you… over the sound of how awesome we are! We can kick butt too!"

The Mega-Emperor's drew nearer to the group. Windsail, Brass, and Komandog stood lined up protecting the tower, with Erika behind them giving them all orders.

"When did they get so many Mega-Emperors though?" Brass asked a little worried. "Because, I don't think we can hold them."

The Mega-Emperor's creeped just within firing distance and brought their guns up to blast them away. Lights flashed on for all of the Mega-Emperors as they all charged Death-Break attacks at once.

"**Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall lllllrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhtttttt tttttt! Leeeeeeeettttsssss gooooooooooooooo!"**

Five Mega-Emperors suddenly blew up into smithereens, parts flying sky high as four more went down. Like a wave of destruction, the ones to the left of the deceased all suddenly started blowing to pieces. A small flash of yellow streaked across the streets, taking a group of explosions with it. Missiles flashed crazily into the air in random directions, blowing up two more Mega-Emperors before they could even retaliate. The yellow flash stopped on a Mega-Emperor's head, barely stopping long enough to be seen. A yellow KBT type similar to Metabee's current body, Saikachis. It had white eyes with red outlines, and the whole thing was very similar to Saikachis, but more slim and trimmed down. It had no shoulder extensions and no obvious areas for action mode transformations. Its right arm had a medium sized pistol attached with one barrel while the left arm had something similar, but instead with two barrels. The ends of the seeker missiles were closed with three red lights on them. The missiles opened up and released two missiles into the Mega-Emperor's face. While the beast medabot was still confused, a dark skinned teenaged kid with a red cap latched onto its back and quickly removed its medal. Both people jumped off and ran like complete and total cowards as the Mega-Emperor self destructed.

"Another one down, ten million to go! This is great, right Chrome?"

"Great? This is suicide! I love to robattle, but this is totally screwed up!"

"Feels great to me!"

"Oh yeah? Is it still great after this?" The medabot knocked the boy aside, away from a stray missile just before it splattered him.

"Ok, maybe I'm just saying that to comfort myself, this is SCARYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

Ikki stared at the pair as they ran from all the medabots they were previously destroying, as if they had caused none of that mayhem. His medwatch beeped out stats about the medabot.

**Chrotojil (Chrome): Consumer electronics (CES)**

**Medafighter: DC**

**Specialty: Hit and run tactics**

**Medal type: Kabuto medal**

**Signature: Gunmetal blast**

The teenager came running towards Ikki and stopped next to him to rest.

"Yo, yo, I dunno what happened to your town, but you guys, are seriously, SERIOUSLY, messed!


	12. The five immortals VS the Prominence!

**The climax is near! Thank you for your patience. Akiana and Aokshi belong to Medapokeyugiobanpukkafan. The latest OC to be added in the next chapter is ShadowLDrago's, the medabots franchise belongs to Natsume, Imagineer, etc. Plot is mine, other OCs are mine, you know the drill! Thanks for trusting me for so long to make something worthwhile to read! Please remember, reviews make the world go roooouuuuunnnddd! Even if you aren't on the site, you can have your say. It's good to see people are still interested in Medabots. You know the drill; The Real Deal himself presents:**

_**This is... SPIRIT!**_

_**Chapter 12: The five immortals VS the Prominence!**_

_Peppercat... I need you right now. Please, don't be gone!_

_. . ._

The new arrivals sat down next to the group as they were filled in on the situation.

"Alright alright, let me get this straight," DC spoke up, trying to clear up his head. "You and a bunch of other kids got together when the attack started, and you're planning on making it to the main saucer, and blowing them up, right?"

"Yup, that's pretty much it!" Ikki said with renewed energy. "Alright, are you in?"

"You bet! This is gonna be epic!"

"Not so fast," Akia interrupted, "What makes you guys any different from the better equipped, better trained Select Corps? Wouldn't it have been safer to go with them? Or better yet, stay at home? Your parents will be pretty worried about you."

"Some of us were just caught out at a bad time, like me," Ikki said, remembering his robattle. "I was just having a robattle when it happened. But now that I'm here, and so much closer than everyone else, I have a chance to stop this from continuing any more!"

"I joined in to get a scoop on this story, the exclusive, before anybody else!" Erika jumped in enthusiastically.

"I'm kinda stuck to these two idiots," Windsail said, almost bored as she cut through one of the tower's legs.

"Hey, Tin-can," Metabee said with a sneer. "How many times have you won in a fight against me? Come on, say it!"

"Oi, Tin-can, that's my line! And you've always had some kind of advantage!"

"Being stronger aint no advantage!"

"Then let's go, you and me, head-to-head, no interruptions!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Both medabots glared at each other with terrifying looks as they brought up there weapons, Windsail having her sword and a newly transformed sceptre while Metabee brought his guns up, gleaming against the light of a nearby street light

"Stop fighting you two!" Ikki cut in, trying to separate them. "Remember our mission!"

"We will as soon as you move your big head out of the way of our match!" Metabee shouted back.

"Watch what you say about me!" Ikki yelled back as he then joined the argument. Fists and medaparts went flying in a jumble everywhere as they each fought each other with everything they had.

"Break it up you guys!" Akia exclaimed. The heap on the floor instantly separated as Akia and Aokshi appeared in the middle, separating them. "We're fighting the rogue medabots, beating each other up comes later!"

"So you're saying we still have to fight each other?" Erika asked, suddenly becoming very unsure of whether the new arrivals were a good thing. Chrome was just sitting on a car tyre, watching this whole sceptical He had a faraway look in his white eyes, almost like he wasn't entirely there.

"Hey, what's with your medabot?" Ikki asked. "He seems a bit too quiet, even for a medabot, and he doesn't look like he's entirely focused. Wasn't he making a whole lot of noise just now?"

"Yeah, he sometimes gets like that," DC said, catching Chrome before he absent mindedly fell off the tyre. "His medal, it's pretty weird. It can't handle the stress of too much power. Whenever he gets too tired, or he pumps himself up too much like in the last fight, he blacks out. I've been looking for a mechanic or programmer who can fix him, but nobody seems up to the job."

"So his medal's defective?" Metabee asked. Ikki punched the back of his head hard.

"Don't be rude Metabee! Sorry about that. He didn't mean to..."

"I can speak for myself, jerk!"

Akia chuckled slightly as she watched the two of them battle each other again, resigning herself to the fact that this would be very common.

"Yo, boss, we've busted up three of this tower's legs. Just say the word and the last one's gone!" Windsail said cheerily.

"Great! Now we just have to call the others and tell them to lure the Robo-Emperors upstream." Ikki brought out something like a small Nintendo DS from his pocket and opened it up. He pressed a few buttons as it turned on and the screen lit up. "Hello? Is anyone there? Ginkai? Zuru?" Ginkai's face appeared on the screen with a war torn background.

_"Ikki? Boy am I glad to see you!"_

"Oi, how about someone who's reliable?" Windsail cut in. DC then joined in the conversation, but only when the connection started to disappear. A few more words and the other group confirmed that they would go upstream. Ikki closed the Nintendo like object and looked out at the river.

"Alright guys, the others are gonna come running this way soon. The Robo-Emperors will be chasing them the whole time. We have to drop the tower on them as soon as they arrive and push it under the water. We can't wait for them to get close to us, otherwise they'll just dodge the tower, so we have to toss it early. Too early though, and we'll splatter everyone else! We have to time it perfectly." The group waited by the tower as Komandog kept melting down the last tower leg, waiting for the others to arrive. Just then, far off in the distance, dust was billowing into the sky. As the rising dust got closer, Ikki spotted the medafighters and their medabots running from a horde of Robo-Emperors and Mega-Emperors. Zuru was sitting on Tyrellbeetlele, holding Rok's limp form and Koji looked like he was barely conscious on Sumilidon. The remaining Robo-Emperors were all badly damaged in various places, but the Mega-Emperors were barely even scratched.

Ikki grabbed Windsail's shoulder firmly.

"Windsail, I have an important mission for you."

"You can count on me, unlike a certain annoying yellow robot we know..."

"Not the point. I need you to fly down there and transform into the biggest, heaviest parts possible and get the enemy's attention."

"Geez, that's kinda hard without my usual parts. This body doesn't have very many heavy stuff."

"Please, just try it. Make sure you stand at a spot where the tower can't hit you once it slides down the river bank. And stay as far away from the enemy as possible."

"Alright, I'll..."

"Just go!" Without hesitation, Windsail flew down the steep flood banks to land just in front of the fleeing group. The tower began slowly, ominously lurching forward as the group began pushing it. The Robo-Emperors all charged their Death-Break mouth blasts, planning on obliterating Windsail as she turned to jelly, then into a green tank.

"Eh? What's little Ikki planning?" Akia asked as she saw the glint in his eyes.

"All Weapon type medabots can alter their enemies weight with their gravity deathbreak attack, making them useful against heavy tank and knight type medabots. If Windsail transforms into a tank, they'll all instinctively charge up their head medaparts to slow her down."

"So how's that goo... Oh now I see!" Akia smiled at the clever tactic and Aokshi nodded his head in acknowledgement of Ikki's skills. DC looked at them all confused.

"Hey people, don't leave me in the dark here!" He said looking at the collapsing tower and the Mega-Emperors preparing to fire. Just then, the tower completely collapsed, narrowly avoiding the other medafighters and Windsail. The Weapon type medabots all fired at once at just the instant that the tower fell, crushing the rogue medabots as the tower's weight amplified. The whole tower slid down the river flood banks, taking the protesting medabots with it, into the river itself. A huge splash erupted from the river, spraying everyone in murky water. The whole force of Medabots disappeared along with the radio tower, to the murky depths below, never to be seen again. All that remained were the marks, a few twisted pieces of metal, and a few ejected medals. Zuru clambered up the river bank toward the group, with his friends following close behind. Koji was being supported by Arc-Dash and Tyrellbeetle and Zuru himself was holding Roks in his arms.

Zuru dropped Roks on the floor in front of where the tower used to stand, almost as tender as a mother would act towards her baby.

"Ikki, we have to meet up with the others, now!"

"Don't worry, the plan was to meet them once we'd gotten rid of the Mega-Emperors..."

"No Ikki, Roks is nearly finished. I need to get him and his medal healed by Karin and Neutranurse. If we don't, he might die!"

"Whoa, whoa, what just happened?" DC butted in. "That medabot's model is pretty scary, but something did this to it? Just what exactly were you fighting?!"

"Just about everything? That doesn't matter, we have to go now!"

"Chill out dude, getting ticked off isn't going to save Roks-"

**"Don't talk to me like you know how I feel!" **Zuru yelled back at him, anger filling his eyes and voice. DC backed away, knowing that things would get real ugly fast, despite being the older one between them. Erika stared at Zuru, barely believing it.

"Zuru..." Zuru glanced at Erika, and immediately caught his breath as he saw the fear in her eyes.

"Zuru... I've never seen you like this before..." Zuru looked down at the floor in shame.

"Guys... Sorry. I'm just scared that I might lose my best friend. I know I shouldn't be shouting at all of you but I couldn't help it."

"It's OK," DC said scratching the back of his head. "I'd want to kill everything that moves if something did that to Chrotojil. I understand that feeling to protect him perfectly. Either way, your medabot needs some extensive care. We have to get help soon and if what you guys have told me is true, Miss Nae or whatever is our best bet."

The group set off at a sprint towards the 24 hour hopmart, hoping to get their before it would be too late for Roks.

. . .

"Hello? Miss Nae, Tak..."

"Karin! Are you alright?"

The group of medafighters arrived at the twenty four hour hopmart to see the devastation that was left. The store itself was on its last legs with bullet holes riddled through it. The car park had bomb craters scattered every two feet, the few parked cars were completely destroyed and smashed skulls littered the ground along with a few medaparts. An unrecognisable arm medapart was poking out of a truck window.

"Whoa, it looks like hurricane Katrina swept through this place in a bad mood. Where is everybody?" Ikki and Koji knocked him out of the way in a frenzy to get past.

"Karin!" The store was still just as barren as before.

"Aw man, we came too early!" Ikki whined as he flopped to the ground in exhaustion. Koji nearly collapsed, clutching his side in pain.

"No... Ikki, what if they..."

"We're right here you guys." Both boys immediately got up at the sound of such a mellifluous voice. Karin and the others emerged from the broken down store. Medafighters and medabots streamed out to greet the people who had returned, and to be introduced to the newcomers. Zuru ran up to Miss Nae clutching Roks in his arms while Ikki and Koji went like obedient puppies towards Karin.

"Miss Nae, Roks is in trouble! You've gotta help him, or else..."

"Calm down Zuru. I've got more patients already, I can't focus on fixing any of them if you scream at me."

"More patients?"

The arrivals entered the wrecked store to see what was going on. Inside the small cramped shop lying on a table, a Metal Beetle was stretched out with its parts showing. Henry was sitting down in a small corner of the room and Spyke was bent over hiding his face at the counter. Sloan was tuning up his medabot with a solemn, but Totalizer looked beyond repair in his condition. Krosserdog was on the floor with his medal ejected next to him.

"Spyke, what happened," Ikki asked him looking at the state of them. Spyke didn't respond. "Spyke, what's going on?" Spyke let out a tiny whimper.

"It's all my fault..."

"What's your fault? Spyke, what happened here? And why aren't you with Samantha?"

Spyke responded with another whimper and a lone tear-drop dropping onto the counter top

"If I hadn't been there, the boss would've escaped, and she would be safe..."

"Spyke..."

"They got the boss!" Spyke whimpered before he burst into tears. "I came back to rescue them, but I ended up getting in the way again! She risked her life to let us all escape! That was the first time she chose not to run away! Ever! She wasn't even thinking of what might've happened to herself, just how to protect all of us... and now she's gone!"

"Spyke, I can's understand you, who kidnapped Samantha?"

"The guys in the main spaceship, that's who! And Peppercat's medal is destroyed so she's on her own!"

"Oi, oi, explain this properly!" Windsail yelled. "I don't know what you're talking about!" Spyke pulled himself together and started explaining how they got in a robattle with Team Fiyun, and how they then sent three Mega-Emperors against them. He told them how once everyone worked together, including Team Fiyun itself, they beat the Mega-Emperors, but at the cost of Peppercat's medal which was completely destroyed, even the medalias which was found later cracked in half and leaking a green fluid. As soon as the Mega-Emperors were destroyed, the mother ship attacked them with giant flaming skulls. Everyone was no match for it, and a skull almost chomped on Spyke. but Samantha sacrificed herself and pushed him out of the way, getting eaten herself instead. The skull then flew back up to the mother ship, accompanied by Samantha's protesting screams. After that, Team Fiyun was nowhere to be seen. Ikki tapped his foot as he thought of a solution. Up until then, he had never thought about how to bring the massive saucer down to the earth.

"Don't worry, we'll save her," Ikki said. "Right guys?" Before anyone could reply, Koji noticed that Henry had disappeared

"Hey, where's Henry?"

Just then the room exploded into a cloud of smoke, covering everything in the thick smog. Everybody coughed and spluttered as they either shielded their eyes or tried to peer through the grey smoky curtain.

"He won't help you to win against this enemy." Everyone looked around themselves for the voice that spoke out of the air.

"Who said that? Show yourselves!" Koji screamed. A white flash tore through the air.

"With my vermilion cape billowing in the cosmic breeze,I have heroically travelled across stars ,too numerous to count, to arrive at this majestic planet you call 'Earth'.I am...SPACE MEDAFIGHTER X!"

A cloud of smoke exploded in the room, forcing everyone to cough and cover their eyes. Once the smoke cleared, Space Medafighter X was standing right in the middle of the crowd. Instead of his normal golden mask, it was a golden mask with a red scar running through it. He was dressed in a copy of Space medafighter X's suit, but it was slightly green instead. It looked improvised from a rubber robo outfit without the goofy antennae and not covering his head, seeing as both suits looked almost exactly the same. His cape was green this time instead of red.

"Space Medafighter X!" Everyone shouted out at once.

"Space who?" Aokshi asked confused.

"Space Medafighter X," Akiana informed. "He was a legendary medafighter who first made his début nine or ten years ago, if the rumours are true about him being Hikaru Agata.

"So coooll!" DC said with shining eyes.

"He's a creep..." Chrome said slowly backing away.

"You may call me a creep, but I may be the last chance at victory you'll ever get!" A red KBT type medabot stepped out from behind him, glowing slightly orange. Everyone stared in awe at the familiar metal face and Chrome sparked a few times as his system almost crashed from the power emanating from the medabot. A red KBT type with two large horns on its chest and head and a pair of scary looking guns on its arms. Each arm had three gun barrels facing forward and sideways. Its feet had a similar design. It had a blue visor for vision. Medawatches rang out with data.

**Arcbeetle: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Space Medafighter X**

**Speciality: Shoots fireballs**

**Medal type: Kabuto**

**Signature: Prominence beam**

Arc-Dash stared at what looked almost exactly like him for a moment.

"Whoa... this is THE Arcbeetle, the medabot with the strongest attack in existence! There has never been a single medabot registered with an attack stronger than the Prominence, and this Arcbeetle is the same one which competed in the last Robattle Championship! He's totally legendary!" Arc-Dash jumped towards Arcbeetle and began rapidly shaking his hand. "Oh man, you don't understand how pumped I am to meet you! I'm like your number one fan!"

Arcbeetle looked at his clone, confused at the sudden popularity compared to his usual cold reception.

"Ignore him," Ginkai said grabbing Arc-Dash away from the pair. "He's just been watching the tape from the tournament from two years ago a lot. I promise he won't cause any trouble.

"On the contrary," Space Medafighter X added. "If what I've heard is true, then he'll have just enough power to keep up with me, for about a few minutes maybe."

"Hey, don't underestimate us! We could take on a clown like you any day!" Ikki grabbed Ginkai's shoulder tightly.

"Ginkai, he might look ridiculous, but he's way stronger then all of us combined. Don't anger him."

"That's right. You've got spirit kid, and you have some guts to challenge me of all people. I commend you for it. But you have a long way to go in terms of learning some humility."

"I don't need some mask wearing weirdo to teach me any lessons! You think you're so tough with that medabot huh? Let me tell you something buddy, this here's Arcbeetle Dash, the upgraded form of that bucket of bolts. You can't win against me!"

"Ginkai, please stop," Miss Nae said seeing where this was going. "The whole city is in danger while you two fight. We can't waste time over a worthless fight." Ginkai ignored her, bringing his medawatch up.

"Then you guys go on ahead and I'll follow once I finish this guy!"

"Oi, fatty, enough's enough!" Windsail cut in. "When Miss Nae gives out an order, chumps like you are meant to follow it!"

"What did you call me?"

"Cool it you two," Miss Nae said. "Ginkai, don't get so angry over small things."

"Yes ma'am," Ginkai said dejectedly.

"And Windsail, don't always act so rude to people!" Windsail looked like she broke into ridiculously exaggerated tears.

"I'M SORRY MISS NAE! IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN, WAAAAA!"

"There's no need to cry about it..."

"BUT I MADE YOU MAD! I'M MEANT TO PROTECT YOU, NOT GET IN YOUR WAY!" Miss Nae kept trying to calm the blubbering Windsail down while Ikki and Metabee just watched, wondering where the tears were actually coming from. The masked medafighter started speaking again.

"Listen closely. The main saucer has been hovering over this store for a while now, and we have to take it down to end this whole war. None of you have flying medabots to get up to it, so Arcbeetle and Arc-Dash have to shoot it down instead. Ginkai, ready your medabot!"

"Huh? O-ok." Before anyone could think through the dangers of the plan, Arc-Dash and Arcbeetle were already charging up their head canons.

"Remember you two," SMX started saying. "Aim slightly to the right so that it gets hit away from us. It should not land on top of us under any circumstances!"

"But won't Samantha be injured?" Spyke said.

"Falling from that height... it's possible," Zuru said as he tried coming up with a solution.

"Don't worry, I've seen another ship similar to this before," Space Medafighter X said. "That thing's armour is thicker than the whole convenience store. Nobody would die if that thing fell. Unless... we accidentally hit her with the Prominence..."

"What!?" Spyke screamed out. "You're gonna kill the boss!"

"No matter. Prepare for fire!"

"Arc-Dash, charge up your own, appendix attack" both medabot's horns lit up.

"Behold!" Arc-Dash began yelling. "The power of the sun, the Pillar of Fire, it's, The Prominence!" Arc-Dash shot out a massive purple laser canon from between his horns into the side of the saucer, almost flipping the whole thing over in one go.

"Wrong," Space Medafighter X said. "Your attack is called the appendix, not the prominence. You cannot hope to imitate the real thing! Initiate, the power of the midnight sun, the Pillar of fire, its... **The Prominence!**"

Arcbeetle added a bright yellow beam that was twice as large to the mix as the blasts mixed together forming a super beam. A massive chunk of the flying saucer flew off, disintegrating under the heat and pressure. The remaining saucer went crashing down to the ground, burning up as it made its way to the ground.

"Take cover!" Akiana screamed as the saucer looked like it was about to crash on top of them. Everyone ducked back into the convenience store, hiding under counters and such. The saucer's terrifying form swooped over everyone's heads, crash landing in the car park, destroying what little was left of it. The ground shook as if angered as nearby buildings all started collapsing. A section of the store's roof caved in completely as everyone scrambled to get out again. Finally after an eternity of running and terror, everything was silent again. Emerging from various hiding spots, the group peeked out to see the saucer crashed very close to them. Multiple city blocks were crushed under the saucer's main body, with a large hole serving as an exit facing the group. Everyone turned to face each other, nodded their heads, and leaving their cover completely, stepped into the open to enter the saucer causing everyone so much grief. Entering the place, that would end it all.

"I can't believe we're finally here," Ikki said. "It took the whole day to get here alive, and now we're going to end it. Once and for all!"

"Yeah, it's time for a robattle they'll never forget!" Metabee shouted.

"It's payback time for what they did to Totalizer!" Sloan said, cracking his knuckles.

"The sacrifices made were not in vain," Space Medafighter X said suddenly getting a dark atmosphere around him.

"I'm tired of this nonsense, this guy needs a serious lesson." Akianna said rolling her shirt sleeves up.

"Everybody, don't die!" Koji said gripping his father's katana harder.

"You should be worrying the most about that, 'mister hero'!" Ginkai said with a grin.

"Alright Chrome! Lets kick some Meta-butt!" DC yelled waving his fist around.

"Right on dude! This is epic!" Rintarou said jumping around with way too much energy.

"Let's see what we can do, Blackbeetle," Kam said with a sinister smirk.

"If things get rough out there, don't forget that I never lose!" Banjo said holding a fist up.

"The shots I'm getting here are killer!" Erika said holding up a camera.

Miss Nae and Karin looked at everyone as they got even more heated up and they both couldn't help but worry about them.

"I hope they'll be alright," Karin said with a worried expression.

"Don't worry about them, worry about yourself." Miss Nae reassured her. "It's going to get pretty dangerous, but those guys are monsters when it comes to robattles. They'll never lose to someone like this." Karin smiled a little as her confidence came back slightly. Karin looked down at the small Tak who was smiling with a huge grin.

"Don't worry Kary, I'm here to protect you, so you don't have to worry about a thing!"

"Oh, so sweet! And by the way, my name is Karin."

"Oh, sorry for getting your name mixed up," Tak said with his face going red. "It's just that this is the first time I've met you, and I'm not very good with names. I never forget a friends face though!"

**"Stop right there!" **an explosion sounded through the air, almost deafening the medafighters as they covered their ears. Smoke and dust blocked the area in front of them. As soon as the dust cleared, five medabots stood there in front of them, blocking the path.

The first one was a large green medabot with massive muscle like medaparts. He looked more like a brick wall painted green than a medabot and it held a sword twice the size of a small child over its shoulder. The second medabot was a female medabot resembling a Bee, with black and yellow patterns all over it. Its arms had two stingers on the top and a pair of see through wings were on its back. Its head was shaped in a metallic copy of Cleopatra's hairstyle with a gold circlet. Its rear stinger had the black and yellow stripes all over them with one large purple stripe in the middle.

The third medabot looked like a samurai warrior wearing a white robe with blue hems, almost like the medabot Seaslug once used. The fourth medabot was an almost exact copy of Rokusho while the fifth medabot was a modified Robo-Emperor.

"Who are you guys?" Koji asked impatiently. "You're in our way! We're trying to save Samantha and shut this place down, and if you stop us you'll be considered our enemy too!"

"Trying to stop you?" The large green medabot said almost laughing. "No my friend, you've got it all wrong!"

"We're not here to stop you," The samurai said. "We're here to kill you!"

Everybody but SMX, Akia and their medabots stumbled backwards a bit as they heard that.

"These are dangerous enemies," Aokshi said. "It would be best for us to handle it."

"Who do you think you are?" Metabee shouted to Aokshi. "You've got friends you know! We can help!"

"He's right," SMX said. "They are all strong. On our own we wont stand a chance against these enemies. Everyone is necessary." The bee medabot was floating in mid-air with her pure black eyes looking half slit in boredom.

"Hey guys, can I play with them a little before they die? I never get to have any fun!"

"Don't worry, you can have as much fun as you like!" The Rokusho looking medabot said as he brandished his sword. The Robo-Emperor roared out in fury at the trespassers.

"My brother, this is our territory," The large medabot said with his Jamaican accent. "Ya can't just waltz up and take it man!"

"Like this we're gonna have a fight on our hands," Roks said as he prepared to fight. Instantly afterwards, he clutched his side in pain and collapsed to the floor.

"Roks!" Zuru ran towards his medabot to try and get him back.

"Oh no you don't!" The Samurai said drawing his sword. The Samurai almost immediately appeared right in front of Zuru, about to slice him in half.

_No! Not like this!_

"Exor!" A lightning flash stretched through the now dark skies just as Sumilidon stepped in front of Zuru. The sword stopped on his blade, just short of his neck. Koji visibly exhaled as he saw how close Zuru and Sumilidon were to dying. "Sorry I had to call you Exor, it was just way faster to say than Su-mi-li-don."

"It's okay Koji, as long as everyone's saf-" a sharp kick from the samurai connected to Sumilidon's face, sending him flying across the ruined car park.

**Warning. Head medapart at 80% damage.**

"What kinda kick was that?" Koji asked seeing the damage spike on his medawatch. Everyone's medawatches clicked data on the medabots around.

**Grand Slam: Meta-Smile**

**Medafighter: None**

**Speciality: Superior strength**

**Medal Type: Knight**

**Signature: Megaton Punch**

**. . .**

**Queen Bee: Unknown Producers**

**Medafighter: None**

**Speciality: Close Quarters Combat (CQC)**

**Medal Type: Monkey**

**Signature: Toxic bliss**

**. . .**

**Whitesword: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: None**

**Speciality: Kenpo**

**Medal Type: ! mark**

**Signature: Lightning Edge**

**. . .**

**Twin Scissors: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: None**

**Speciality: Grappling**

**Medal Type: Kuwagata**

**Signature: Quick flash slash**

**. . .**

**Robo-Empress: Armond's Workshop**

**Medafighter: None**

**Speciality: Destruction**

**Medal Type: Bear**

**Signature: Death Break**

"Then it's agreed!" Nin-ninja and Mr Referee jumped out of the group in black Shinobi outfits and holding kunais. "I officially declare this a submission warbattle! I shall act as referee, me, Mr Referee!"

"Hold up, weren't you just helping us to fight?" Metabee asked.

"This match is too dangerous for me, and I shall just slow you down!"

"No you won't!" DC yelled. "Stand and fight you!"

"Unless you wanna turn tail and run, coward!" Banjo said with a sneer. Mr Referee ignored it completely and continued.

"The rules are simple! The loser must give up one medapart and will be at the mercy of the winning side! Any number of medabots are allowed to join in but remember, no swapping medaparts during battle. Medafighters and medabots ready?"

The side of medafighters all nodded their heads in unison. The five medabots didn't seem concerned at all.

"Don't you think the odds are a bit unfair you losers? Seventeen against five?" Koji pointed out.

"It is unfair," the Twin-Scissors said.

"Yeah, you need about 100 of you before it's finally fair!" Queen Bee finished off. "Now let me play with you for a little while..."

"Medabots, roooooba..." Mr Referee barely finished before the Samurai was already slicing at virtually every single medabot on Ikki's side.

"Komandog, blast them with your beams!"

"Totaliser, use the Special Beam canon!" Both medabots fired their canons at the samurai at once, but he simply jumped over both attacks. Blackbeetle and Kantaroth both ran forward to attack him head on, but they were both knocked back before laying a single blow. The green knight medabot then immediately jumped into the sky, disappearing from view. As soon as he left, the Twin-Scissors jumped forward and cut across Metabee.

"Metabee, missile launch!" Two missiles rocketed out of Metabee's horns and landed true against Twin-Scissors. Twin-Scissors back flipped out of the explosion almost completely unharmed.

"What? What sort of medabots are these?" Kam asked as Blackbeetle got slashed to virtually nothing, with all parts shutting down. As soon as she collapsed, the green knight slammed down on her back in a gigantic crash, splitting the pavement apart in a huge crater.

"Are ya feeling my Grand slam attack man? It's righteous aint it my brother?" Blackbeetle barely had time to scream out in pain before her eyes shut down, followed by a clinking medal.

"Two down, who's next?" Twin-Scissors said as he ripped his sword out of Totalizer's stomach.

"No way... These things aren't medabots, they're Murderers!" Tak shouted as Queen Bee was flying circles around Komandog, stabbing and torturing him the whole time instead of finishing him instantly. Komandog was franticly blasting lasers all around him, whimpering at all the pain he was going through.

"Something's not right here," Miss Nae said as her Earthkrona got tossed high into the air like a paperweight.

"What do we do Miss Nae?" Ikki asked as fear crept through him again.

"Ikki, look at Queen Bee, have you noticed anything about how she attacks?"

"She stings her enemies, and then beats them up. From there, the others finish the job." Queen Bee shot herself up into the sky away from the mortally wounded Komandog as the Robo-Empress aimed her canons at him.

"But look at her stingers. Those aren't ordinary daggers on there."

"So is it a poison?" Ikki asked already guessing something like that.

"Not exactly," Space Medafighter X stated as Arcbeetle and Aokshi tried dodging as many Robo-Emperor missiles as possible. "It's not poison, it's an amplifier."

"An amplifier?"

"The venom on her arms can increase certain senses in medabots, such as touch, sight, and others. Medabots have limits as to how much pain they can feel while in a battle. So that the pain doesn't become unbearable after being hit. Even the standard non-lethal ammunition can become excruciatingly painful. The ten days of darkness is proof to that, with thousands of lives being lost. Her venom increases the sense of touch medabots normally have, making each attack they take sheer torture. Having an ejected medal is no longer like being knocked out, it is a near death experience!"

"But why would they do that?" Karin asked as soon as she ordered Neutranurse to heal the wounded medabots. "It doesn't help anybody."

"It's to lower our morale," Kam said. "A sneaky tactic at that. If our medabots get too damaged, they'll stop functioning early from the shock of being hit like that. Once the others realise what's happening, they'll turn tail and run. Very effective."

"Stop talking like you're impressed by this!" Erika screamed grabbing Kam's collar in rage. "Think of a way to beat it!"

"Well as a former evil genius, I have to give respect to such things. It's part of my job."

"How do we beat it?!"

"You can't beat it," Zuru said plainly as his glasses misted over. Everyone turned to him for an explanation. "Those five have better teamwork then all of us. Fighting them together would be suicide. We have to separate them from the strongest members. Honey Bee is strong, but she's support. On her own she's useless. Grand Slam is way too powerful for anyone but 'the big bad four' to handle. If we can get Arc-Dash, Arcbeetle, Tyrellbeetle, and Redrun to attack Grand Slam at once, we can beat him. We know how the other three fight, so you guys can handle them. Ready guys?"

"Right!"

Space Medafighter X stared down at Zuru with an unreadable look on his mask.

_This kid is really good at analysing situations. If Me and Akia get taken out, he may be the most useful person here next to Ikki and Karin. Speaking of which, Karin really is useful here..._

Karin was repairing the shut down medabots with Miss Nae herself while Neutranurse was shielding everybody from Grand Slam and Robo-Empress.

"Alright Metabee, Action mode! Windsail, fly in with him!"

"Tyrellbeetle, action mode!"

"Arc-Dash, action mode!" The medabots shifted their medaparts, matching them rapidly together in place onto wheels while Windsail barrel rolled through the air after them with her sword. A barrage of missiles smashed into the ground around the medabots as they dodged blast after blast. Grand Slam swung his gargantuan blade at the ground, splitting the pavement apart. Shock waves spread through the ground sending a wave of rising earth towards the attacking group. Windsail swooped down and grabbed Metabee, tossing him up away from the ground. Arc-Dash got hit right in the face by the rising wall of dirt, tossing him far backwards into Arcbeetle. Tyrellbeetle immediately dived over the dirt with his fist held backwards aiming at Grand Slam.

"Now you're finished! Eat my **Dynamic punch!**"Grand Slam stiffened his entire body.

"My brother, ya can't beat me!" Grand Slam brought up his sword to shield himself. Tyrellbeetle brought his fist down on the sword trying to smash the whole thing in half. "I told ya you can't..." The two medabots exploded in a burst of flames, engulfing them both. Everything around them blew up into tiny pieces as bits of metal shrapnel flew around the battleground. Grand Slam flew backwards gripping his sword tightly with burn marks all over his body. His sword was cracked in the middle. Tyrellbeetle followed after him, jumping to him in the sky. The two titans kept flying higher into the sky from their leaps. "Whoa, that was solid my brother! Holding one of those missiles in your hand while you punched me to send us both sky high. Righteous! And so that we wouldn't see what you did, you grabbed the missile while you were behind my earth wall. You've got talent my friend, but it won't be nothing against the one and only, Grand Slam!" The two landed with a crash on top of the flying saucer, far beyond everyone's view. Zuru pressed a button on his medawatch and a holographic field appeared showing him everything Tyrellbeetle could see. Redrun, Arc-Dash and Arcbeetle jumped after them.

"Good luck guys," Brass said as she watched them leave.

"Little girl, focus on the fight at hand!" Brass turned around quickly bringing her arms up to stop the hit. A lightly armoured leg flung sideways towards her stomach. Brass doubled over as something inside smashed from the impact. While she was bent over, a sword swung down on her neck. A bright white light flashed through the air, blinding everybody. When the light cleared up, Whitesword and Twin-Scissors were standing over the falling body of Brass. A large cut was sparking on her neck and her medal was on the floor next to her.

**100% damage to head medapart. Functions ceased.**

"Did you enjoy my show?" Twin-Scissors said with malice dripping from his voice.

"Excellent kick Twin-Scissors," Whitesword said with his own sword dripping with oil. "Although I hope they enjoyed my blade. A little, 'trick of the light'."

_A trick of the light? _Spyke thought to himself. _I've heard that line before..._

"_Like my attack? A little, 'trick of the light'..."_

"The Quickflash Slash!" Spyke and Sloan both yelled out at once. "Everyone, you can't win against that attack! It's almost at light speed!"

"So what do we do?" Koji asked.

"Yeah dude, what's your plan?" Rintarou said getting more and more frustrated.

"Yeah genius, give us some intel about this guy!" DC said gritting his teeth as Chrome was being tossed around by multiple Quickflashes. Chrotojil got knocked into the air one last time before Queen Bee flew towards him.

"I almost feel sorry for you... anyways, goodbye!" Queen Bee flew just underneath where Chrotojil was about to land and put both of her arm stingers up above her.

"Chrotojil, nooo!" An unimaginable scream of pain screeched through the air, clawing on everyone's eardrums searching for a release from its torture. Everyone was speechless. The two stingers were going straight through Chrotojil's back and out through his stomach. His eyes were stretched wide, far larger than they were programmed to go and with an unimaginable expression of horror. The points of each stinger were needle thin while the base was the same thickness as a common baseball bat. Both of them were the length of someone's forearm. The stingers were coated in a red sticky liquid. Obviously the pain enhancing poison.

"Chrome!" DC shoved past everyone to get to Chrome's petrified body. Before he could run ten steps, Twin-Scissors almost teleported to him, punching him hard in the gut with his hammer fist. DC doubled over as the wind escaped his lungs.

"Teenagers... They're all so immature." DC collapsed on the floor, clutching his stomach in agony. He was on the verge of tears, barely able to keep it in after the hit he took and Chrome's condition. "Who do you think you are? You think you're a hero? You think just because he's your 'friend' that you can save him? That through sheer willpower, guts, and a bit of luck, you can overcome anything? What jokes. Let me tell you this now kid. Dreams and hopes, they're just a fairy tale told in bad shounen anime and in movies. It may sound harsh, but I don't really care. It's the truth that I have experienced with my own medal. None of your determination is worth a thing, if you don't have power. Not money and fortune, but true power. You and your friends can never defeat me without power." DC collapsed onto the floor, barely conscious as he realised that even after all of that, his breath hadn't come back yet. The world slowly started fading out for him as he ignored everything he just heard, trying with the last of his strength to crawl to his friend.

"This is nothing..." He gasped as he coughed out a fistful of blood. "This is nothing compared... to what Chrome is feeling right now. I'd take this every day, twice a day... if it meant that Chrome was OK.." Twin-Scissors looked down at him with what looked like a raised eyebrow. Queen Bee who was twisting her stingers around inside Chrome's back, looked to see the stubborn kid on the floor.

"Oh you would?" Queen Bee said jeeringly. "And why would you do that?"

"Because... Excuse me if the word is wrong, as I still find Japanese hard but... We're Nakama!"

"Oh? So you do know Japanese huh? Nakama? Him? He wasn't worth it at all. Making him your medabot."

"Don't talk about him like that!" DC clutched his side as he felt it start to throb with pain. His other hand clenched tightly, with his nails digging into his palm. Blood trickled down his hand as his skin was punctured. "I know that that the power of will alone isn't enough to save anybody. Look at me. I'm not all that strong, only fourteen. No real skills. I need power, if I want to win. But to get that power, it's impossible for me. I need a different kind of power."

"A different power?"

"You wouldn't understand if I told you... It trumps everything you have!" DC rolled away to the side, barely dodging the sword that was swinging down to execute him. Kicking himself back up in a spurt of energy, he ran towards Queen Bee and Chrome. Whitesword stepped in the way.

"Who do you think you..."

"**Shut up!" **DC slid underneath the arcing sword blade and almost instantly afterwards, snapped the medabot's wrist backwards, stealing the sword in the process. Charging forward with the new weapon, he dashed towards Queen Bee. **"Now you're finished! Take this!"**

_Remember what Big bro said. Use your feet to your advantage. Crouch down low, swing up using the swords momentum. Push with your feet. Aim for the neck. Don't swing, push. Whole body movement here. Here goes!_

Queen Bee let out a sinister laugh as she tossed Chrome towards DC. DC quickly dodged around Chrome, still swinging for Queen Bee's neck.

"Pathetic..." DC froze in his tracks.

"**What? My sword... It stopped!" **The sword he was swinging stopped entirely in the air. Queen Bee was giggling like a little girl.

"So weak... You're soooo weak." The blade of the sword was stopped in the air. One of Queen Bee's fingers alone was stopping the entire blade.

"**No way! The whole blade stopped by your index finger?!" **DC jumped back instantly, trying to get as much distance as he possibly could from her.

_No way... The accuracy and power needed to stop a sword in mid strike with only your finger... That kind of power shouldn't exist!_

Before he could launch a second attack, five missiles flew towards him. Two massive explosions blew up the dirt all around DC. As the dust cleared, he was nowhere to be seen. Koji was holding him back with the rest of the group which had been bombarded with attacks the whole time. Queen Bee flew into the air slowly with an air of power around her.

"Let me show you what real power is. Not that joke you call robattle spirit! I am Queen Bee! You cannot..."

Two missiles exploded against her.

"Now Windsail, this is your chance!"

Windsail flew around her with an improvised cord, lassoing her tightly. Metabee then drove to the two of them in action mode at full speed. Windsail tossed the rope down at him, tying it to his horns. Metabee then shot of with Queen Bee unwillingly trailing behind on the ground.

"Leave Queen Bee alone!" Twin-Scissors screamed as he leaped to stop Metabee.

"Earthkrona! Now!"

The green tank medabot skidded in front of the two intervening medabots with purple shields on her arms.

"You guys are going nowhere!" She said as she awaited Miss Nae's orders.

. . .

"Metabee, this place is good!"

"Alright."

"Like I'd let you keep dragging me anyway!"

Metabee stopped driving in the old park where everything started. Queen Bee struggled to untangle herself from the ropes binding her. After a brief struggle, she stood up with anger in her eyes. "What kinda treatment was that?"

"Looks like everything's running smoothly," Ikki said as he caught up to Metabee and Windsail. "Alright Metabee, are you ready?"

"I was manufactured ready!"

"Don't forget me genius!"

"Would I ever do that?"

"Of course not," Metabee said. "With how annoying you are, we can't forget you!"

"Watch it Tin-can!"

Queen Bee looked in confusion at the fighting medabots and the hopeless medafighter trying to calm them down.

"You do realise you have bigger problems, right?"

Metabee and Windsail both glared at Queen Bee with an evil look.

**"Shut up!" **they both said together, then resumed arguing. Queen Bee looked even more confused than before.

"Hey, are you guys seriously ignoring me?"

**"Yes!"**

As if Queen Bee wasn't there, they continued arguing. Queen Bee's eyes darkened as her mood turned from bad to deathly. Her two stingers began dripping a red and purple fluid.

"You people... I'm the queen here... **Don't take me lightly!"**

. . .

The room was dark. She could barely see past her own nose. Samantha tried looking around for some kind of light. Nothing. From what she could tell, she was suspended vertically in the air somehow. Samantha tried moving. No dice. Her hands and feet were completely bound by something metallic, but she couldn't tell what. Paic hit her like a monsoon.

_I'm trapped in a dak scary room, with nobody to help me. It's cold, it's scary, my feet hurt, and I wanna go home!_

Just then, she remembered everything that had happened in the day. An inescapable sadness crept over her as tears began flowing again.

_Peppercat... I miss you._

With nobody watching, she didn't have to worry about someone seeing he tears.

_I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish Ikki was here. He'd think of some way to bail me outta here._

Just then, a mechanical noise whirred through the room as a light opened a few feet away. A door of some sort. There were two shadows talking to eachother as the door shut behind them.

"...troublesome, I can assure you. Three Mega-Emperors weren't even enough!"

"Well what did you expect? With her being what she is, it wouldn't be easy."

"But she's a little girl. Maybe only ten. She shouldn't be that powerful yet."

"Well that means we caught a nice little fishy eh?"

"Not a very pretty one though..."

Samantha was fuming with anger.

_Not pretty? Am I just some object to these guys? And an ugly one to?_

She stayed silent anyway, just in case they were dangerous though.

"Either way, you've done a good job. With this, we can finally commence the plan."

"But the ship's grounded. Buy the time we have enough power, they'll be inside. We're in a vulnerable position."

"That's why _you're _here."

"But what if they ambush us?"

"Then you ambush the ambush!"

"What do we do with her though?"

"Leave her as she is. She's a Tochikan after all. We can't afford to harm her too much. Drain some of her power though. Just enough that we can liftoff. Keep her alive though."

_A Tochikan? What's a Tochikan? _Before she could reach an answer, whatever it was that was holding her in place began to spark.

"Huh? Hey wait!" she screamed to the two shadows who were leaving. "What's going on? Don't leave me here!"

One of the shadows stopped.

"Hey, Tochikan girl, don't cry like that. It ruins your looks."

Samantha stopped struggling.

_What?... _The braces holding her started sparking wildly. Samantha gave one last desperate scream before the braces exploded in a bright light. Then, she lost consciousness...

**You've seen it once, you'll see it again! This is the real Deal has presented this chapter of This is Spirit! Cliffhangers! You've gotta love Cliffhangers. Brace yourself to be shocked next time!**

**A note: ShadowLDrago, sorrt for not putting your OC in for this chap. He will arrive shortly. Next chapter.**

**More medabots, more Power!**


	13. For Love and Freedom (part 1)

**Yo people! Time to get real serious about this! No intro needed, other than some thanks for reading so far! Oh, and as I said, reviews make the world go roooouuund!**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This is Spirit!**

Mr Referee: Last time, the group was united with some new friends, and some old faces. Joined by Akiana, DC, and the legendary Space Medafighter X, they continued to the main saucer. With help from Arcbeetle and Arc-Dash, they brought down the entire main saucer, preparing to board the ship. Just before they entered, five terrifyingly strong medabots appeared before them. The terrifying Grand Slam, the sadistic Queen Bee, the overpowered Robo-Empress, the enigmatic Twin-Scissors, and the man slayer Whitesword. After coming too close to defeat, they decided that their only chance was to separate their foes and pick them off one by one. Meanwhile, the enemies have some unknown purpose planned out for Samantha. What are there plans, what is a Tochikan and what does it have to do with Samantha?

_**Chapter 13: For Love and Freedom**_

"Metabee, keep your distance!"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Getting cut down, that's what!" Windsail replied. Metabee was in action mode, driving like there was no tomorrow as far away from Queen Bee as he could. Windsail was desperately fighting her off with her silver sword high up in the sky. Ikki was shouting terse commands the whole time as he tried to figure out a way to beat her. Queen Bee had since regained her calm, evil composure, and seemed all the deadlier from it. Queen Bee seemed to be enjoying herself a little too much, fencing off Windsail's well aimed strikes with ease. Windsail however was barely keeping up with her.

_She's so fast, and her power is on another level! _Windsail thought to herself in disbelief. _How does Ikki expect me to keep up with her?_

"Focus on the fight, Moku-chan!~" Queen Bee sang in a sing-song voice. (Moku is Japanese for cloud. So Moku-chan would mean little cloud. It's a tease on Windsail's name and how she seems to have a stormy temper.) Windsail's eyes widened in surprise as Queen Bee disappeared right in front of her.

"What the... Where'd she go?" Windsail desperately looked around her for her enemy. A flash of yellow shot through the sky. Windsail looked up, bringing her sword arm up to protect herself. All too late, Queen Bee had already closed the gap between them, stabbing her left stinger deep into Windsail's right shoulder. Windsail let out a menacing growl as she fought through the rising pain spreading through her body. "Is that your best shot?" Windsail said in a halting voice as increasing waves of pain hit her.

"OOo, stubborn aren't we?" Queen Bee said. "It looks like I have a lively one to play with!"

"Boss, what do I do?" Windsail asked Ikki through the medawatch so that only Ikki could hear her asking for help.

"Just stall her for a little longer," Ikki said through Windsail's medawatch before turning to Metabee. "Metabee, are you done yet?"

"Just about! Lets rock this scene!" Metabee was in full demolition mode armour, aiming his head canons at Queen Bee. A green energy ball was charging in the end of his canon as it swirled with power.

"Windsail now! Just as we planned!"

"Gotcha boss!" Windsail gripped Queen Bee's arm tightly with both hands, bringing the stinger in deeper. Queen Bee looked at her in amusement.

"What are you gonna do now? Moku-chan?"

"Shut it. You're just another tin-can to me," Windsail growled as she rocketed towards the ground with Queen Bee being forced to follow. Windsail crashed into the grassy clearing below, making a small crater in the earth. She staggered for a bit as another wave of pain hit her from the stinger shaking inside her shoulder. Shaking off the pain, she flew towards Metabee with Queen Bee being dragged along with her.

"Hey, wait a second, you're not gonna..." Queen Bee looked in concern at Metabee's canon as the attack inside it grew larger by the second.

"Mhh-mh, that's right!" Metabee said at the peak of his power.

"He's gonna blow your head off in one concentrated shot!" Windsail said with glee. "And from point blank distance!"

"But you'll go down to!" Queen Bee protested. "You couldn't blow up your 'girlfriend'!"

"Oh yeah? Try me!" Metabee yelled as soon as Windsail reached Metabee. Windsail twisted her body around so that Queen Bee was right in front of Metabee's canons. Queen Bee seemed to almost pale as she stared down the barrel of the gun.

"Wait! I'm not ready yet!"

"And she's not my girlfriend!"

"Stop!"

"**Medablast!" **A massive blue energy blast erupted in rage from Metabee's canons. Both Windsail and Queen Bee were completely engulfed by the blast, hidden from view completely. The trees all bent backwards with gale force winds as the shock wave from the attack swept through the park. Ikki covered his eyes as he was nearly toppled over from the blast. As soon as the dust began to clear, Ikki took a look at what was left. Metabee's demolition mode parts were transporting back home as he stood up to survey the damage. Windsail was sitting cross legged on the floor with burn marks all over her right arm and a cracked sword. Most of the right side of her body was scorched. She looked up at Metabee.

"Man that was tough!" Metabee said to himself. "But it's a darn shame. She was so hooooooot!" Metabee's eyes changed to large pink digital hearts as he held his chest thinking about his enemy. Windsail's newly formed digital eyebrows twitched in annoyance.

_That guy... as if I'm not standing right here... Am I not as beautiful?!_

"Oi, tin-can." Before Metabee could reply, Windsail gave him an over-the-top hay maker punch, knocking him backwards 20 metres.

"What was that for?" Metabee screamed as he picked himself up off the ground with a ridiculously large bump on his head. Windsail blinked twice as she realised that Metabee hadn't noticed her jealousy, and then quickly began thinking of an excuse for her behaviour.

"You-you couldn't have waited for me to run away when you used the medablast?"

"Queen Bee dared me, saying I didn't have the guts to hit you!"

"So you prove her wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"If Queen Bee told you to 'die' would you?"

"NO! Weren't you planning on getting hit anyway!"

"That was before I knew how much it would hurt!"

"What did you expect?!"

Ikki looked on in exasperation at the two arguing again.

"You just don't quit do you?" Ikki looked on the burnt ground for any trace of Queen Bee. There wasn't anything left, not even a medal. _Funny, I thought she'd be stronger._

"Just like little kids." Metabee and Windsail exploded in a cloud of dust. Windsail came hurtling out of it, skidding on her back the whole time. As soon as the dust cleared, Queen Bee was seen hovering in the air holding Metabee by his horns. Her almost insect like wings were flapping furiously. "OOo, it looks like I can have some fun in this fight! It's time to go all out!"

"Wh-what?!" Metabee screamed in disbelief. Ikki looked in shock.

_No way! She survived the demolition canon! There is nearly no medabot in the world that can stay standing after that. What _is _she?_

"No way... I'm not going down like this!" Metabee twisted his body, kicking Queen Bee as hard as he could in the stomach. Queen Bee's eyes only lit up in a sadistic smile.

"So weak..." she brought her arm backwards, preparing to stab Metabee in the gut.

"Metabee, point blank seeker missiles!"

"Booyah!" Two rockets shot out from Metabee's head, exploding almost instantly after as they impacted against Queen Bee. Smoke spread around the two medabots, obscuring them. Queen Bee flew backwards out of the smoke, completely unharmed.

**15% damage done. Not very effective.**

Queen Bee's wings buzzed back to life as she flew to Metabee.

"Metabee, action mode! Windsail, transform left arm part!"

Metabee transformed into his car form and drove towards Queen Bee, the two constantly clashing and dashing against each other's armour. Windsail's arm morphed into jelly before stopping on a purple arm with a gold sceptre. Windsail flew after Queen Bee, gripping her sceptre tightly.

"Metabee, pull a fast stop, breaking only with your front wheels, then transform back!" Metabee charged straight into Queen Bee, and just before impact, stopped abruptly. As soon as he stopped, his whole body began lurching forward, almost flipping him onto his back. He transformed while moving like that, flipping forward into the air while switching to his normal form. He launched into the air like this, colliding into Queen Bee in the air with his fist. Queen Bee just barely put up her arms to stop the fist. A wave of air spread as soon as they impacted. Windsail quickly flew in just then with her gold sceptre, setting it on fire in the process.

"Take this!" she screamed as she slashed a flaming X through the sky towards Queen Bee. Queen Bee pushed Metabee away and almost instantly kicked the flaming X straight back towards Windsail. Windsail's eyes widened as she didn't even have enough time to dodge the scorching X from wrapping itself around her head.

**Warning. Head medapart transform offline.**

"You guys _are _dangerous! It looks like I really will have to go all out!" Queen Bee shot towards Windsail, her stingers outstretched. Windsail put up her sword to defend herself.

"So weak..." Queen Bee immediately disappeared, then reappeared as five separate versions of herself, each of them stabbing mercilessly at Windsail. Windsail covered her face in desperation as the searing unimaginable pain kicked in. Two missiles flew on their way to Queen Bee in a surprise attack. All copies of Queen Bee re merged back into one copy and grabbed both seeker missiles. She twirled them around herself like a ballet dancer before launching one at Windsail and the other back to Metabee. Two separate explosions engulfed the arena. Ikki began shouting out more commands.

"Meta..." Queen Bee had already arrived right behind Metabee's damaged body, barely giving him time to recover from the last attack. Ikki didn't even have time to command Metabee as a stinger went straight through Metabee's back. Metabee's eyes stretched wider than they were programmed to do as the shock of the pain registered in his system. As instantly as the stinger had come, it vanished as Queen Bee flew back.

"I wonder if I can have fun playing with you?" Queen Bee said with a mischievous look. Metabee haltingly turned to look at Queen Bee with anguish and rage.

"You..." Queen Bee flew back down with her right stinger aimed at Metabee. She stuck the stinger through where Metabee's heart would have been, or the medabot equivalent. Queen Bee let out a tiny childish giggle.

"Come on Metabee, can you do me a favour?" she said in a seductive voice. Metabee froze up as he felt his whole body begin to change.

"What are... you doing? I can't... move my body!" Queen Bee was standing incredibly close to Metabee, almost as if she was whispering in his ear. Not that he has any. Her stinger was lodged deep inside Metabee's chest, and the purple stripe that was around her rear stinger had changed colour to a deep pink.

"Don't worry. My sting isn't the same as last time. The poison in my stingers were meant to hurt you, but now it's being used to get my claws on you... Soon you'll just be another puppet to me... and you'll be loving every minute of it..."

Metabee felt his mind fog over, he felt himself lose rational thought as a warm feeling crept over him. His vision became blurred over, mixed with a blend of certain objects having high clarity. The noise around him dimmed slightly.

_This feeling... it feels... kinda good. Metabee likes this feeling..._

Metabee tried looking at Queen Bee. She was displayed in perfect clarity, looking almost lovingly at Metabee. In fact, her appearance seemed almost enhanced.

_Whoa... She's so..._

Queen Bee's normally midnight black eyes seemed to have stars twinkling inside them, and the look she was giving Metabee was filled with emotions Metabee couldn't understand himself.

_I never really noticed but... She's so beautiful. It's like some kind of dream. Am I in... love?_

"Metabee," Queen Bee whispered seductively. "You must be so confused right now..."

"Oi!" Windsail slowly began picking herself up off the floor as she staggered around dizzily. "What are you doing to Metabee? Get your claws off of him!" Windsail tried flying straight to her unsteadily. "You won't be so hot when you taste my Secondary Lotus!" (Hey, remember where Windsail used a move called the Primary Lotus? Yeah, sorry about that, it was meant to be called the Secondary Lotus. I'll go back to edit it some time...Ah well!) Windsail prepared to swing her leg forward. Just when she was five metres away, her whole body went limp as she collapsed. "What... shoot. That poison is effecting me more than I thought..."

Ikki stared on, not knowing what to do.

_Metabee... what's going on?_

Queen Bee ignored them completely and continued weaving her spell on Metabee.

"You must be confused. Don't be. Just embrace it. Enjoy my love while you can." Queen Bee gently embraced Metabee as she gently pulled out the stinger, Metabee who the whole time wasn't moving a medapart. He was just like her puppet now, too far in to escape from her jaws. "Don't fear it. Embrace it. Indulge in my **Toxic Bliss technique**..." She drove her stinger back in, deeper into Metabee's chest before finally letting go and backing off.

"So... beautiful..." Metabee wobbled slightly on his feet before finally collapsing on the ground, not feeling any more pain.

"Metabee!" Ikki screamed. "That's it Windsail, get up and finish it with your Lotus attack!"

"That's what I've been trying the whole time!" Windsail said with renewed energy. Windsail hovered over the ground for a few moments before rocketing towards Queen Bee. Queen Bee stared at Windsail with her sadistic grin.

"Metabee..."

Windsail brought back her sword.

"This time, you're finished!"

"Missile launch!" Windsail erupted in a large explosion, getting sent flying far backwards in one shot. Queen Bee looked like she was enjoying herself too much. Metabee had a faraway look to his eyes, almost like he had been to a paradise and hadn't completely returned. Windsail looked at Metabee with fury.

"Oi, tin-can! What do you think you're doing?"

"Destroying you," he said blankly.

"What?"

"Metabee, are you alright?" Ikki asked with concern.

"Yes... I've never been better now that I know what true love is!" he yelled with pink digital hearts appearing in his eyes again. It almost looked ridiculous if it wasn't so deadly serious.

"What?"

Metabee ran towards Windsail.

"Windsail, I'm sorry about this, but I can't control myself. I have to defeat you for love!"

"Cut it out tin-can, we're in a robattle!"

"That's right Metabee, we have to take down Queen Bee now!"

"I can't!"

Ikki stared a Metabee with disbelief.

"Metabee..."

"I'm sorry Ikki, but I have to listen to whatever Queen Bee says from now on! It's not something you can understand Ikki... but I won't listen to a word you say if it means harming her!"

"Metabee..."

Windsail flashed her sword.

"Well then, it's about time for this rematch tin-can!"

Metabee brought up his sub-machine gun with a deadly serious look on his face as his eyes changed from green to pink. Metabee let loose a hail of machine gun bullets as he tried to pepper Windsail. Windsail skilfully dodged them all.

"Windsail, we don't want to hurt Metabee, go straight for Queen Bee!"

"What? But I wanna take down Metabee!" she whined.

"We're not here for a robattle, we're here to save the city!"

"Grrrrrr..."

Windsail flew past Metabee, charging straight for Queen Bee. Metabee turned around and transformed into action mode, going after Windsail.

"Windsail, the gold sceptre!"

Windsail turned around in mid flight and slashed the burning X towards him. Metabee easily drifted around the X and transformed back to normal, all the while shooting with both guns. Windsail shielded herself with her arms.

"Gotcha!" Queen Bee shouted. Out of nowhere,Queen Bee arrived, giving Windsail a flying kick to the head. Windsail shot to the ground with her head bouncing on the floor three times. Just before she stopped on the ground, Metabee arrived with a soccer ball kick to her head.

**Warning. All parts at 50% damage. Head at 68% damage.**

"Windsail, Shadow Sword!"

Windsail disappeared, almost instantly arriving next to Metabee, slashing across his arm. Metabee rolled to the side, just barely avoiding the cut.

"How do you like this?" Metabee's demolition mode parts transported.

"Windsail, Shadow Sword again!"

Windsail got into her crouching stance again as she prepared for the Shadow Sword technique. She disappeared instantly again, reappearing next to Metabee.

"Gotcha!" yet again, Queen Bee interrupted with a flying kick straight to the head. While Windsail was rolling over in the dirt, Queen Bee arrived flying over her, stabbing her to the ground with her stinger. Windsail cried out in agony as the stinger pierced her. Queen Bee yanked her stinger out of her again, sparing no time as she returned to Metabee's side. Queen Bee leaned on Metabee's shoulder as if they were suddenly a couple with a playful look in her eyes.

"Oh, I thought you would be more fun than this! If you want Metabee back, you'll have to fight me for him!~"

"Thought it would be more fun?" Ikki asked with a slight half smile. "You don't know what you're in for do you?" Queen Bee looked at Ikki with a funny curious look. "We're just getting started!"

A chopping noise spread through the park. Queen Bee stared at Ikki and Windsail confused. Metabee wasn't moving.

"Hey, check where you're standing," Windsail said with what would be a smirk. Queen Bee looked around herself for a moment.

"In a clump of trees?"

"Good..." All of the trees shifted slightly. All of the trees started tilting down at the same time. One after the other, the trees started collapsing, all of them falling on or near Queen Bee and Metabee.

"Forgetting something?" Ikki asked. "I'm a champion at using my surrounding to my advantage. You can't beat me in a forest environment!" The trees remained still one on top of the other, with the exception of a few random logs shaking here and there.

"Functions ceased! The winner is..."

"**Hold it!" **the trees all exploded outwards as Queen Bee and Metabee kicked the trees off of them in rage. "You didn't think I would lose that easily did you?" Queen Bee asked as her stingers began to glow.

"Windsail, stay away from them!"

"I know, I know!"

Windsail flew in the opposite direction to the pair.

"Metabee, please listen to me!" Ikki began. "It's true I probably can't understand your feelings right now, even if you're under the Toxic Bliss, and maybe you actually _do _like Queen Bee. But right now Metabee, I don't care about all that stuff! I need you Metabee! You're our only chance at winning right now! And if we can't win here... I may never see you, my best friend, ever again!"

Metabee didn't reply, instead he kept gazing in adoration at Queen Bee.

"I'm sorry Ikki, you don't get it right now. I _can't _help you! Queen Bee is my only master now!"

Windsail looked down at the ground, with Shadows obscuring her expression. Her fists were tightly clenched.

"I can't believe you..." Windsail said softly. Ikki stared at Windsail, noticing the dramatic change in her behaviour. "I can't believe you're the same person!" A bright green purple light engulfed the entire park, coating Windsail with it entirely.

"No way, this is..." Ikki started.

"The medaforce?" Queen Bee finished.

"No," Windsail said. "**Just power! The Metabee I know would never bend his knee to anybody on the planet, not even his medafighter!"**

Everyone's eyes widened in shock as Windsail disappeared before their eyes. Suddenly, Metabee randomly got hit into the air. Windsail randomly appeared right behind him, gripping his torso. Both of them started rotating rapidly in the air as they turned upside down and returned to the ground.

"**I've had it with you Metabee, Secondary Lotus!" **They smashed into the ground with a colossal explosion, destroying everything nearby in seconds. Windsail jumped backwards away from the shattered frame of Metabee. "Well, that takes care of that!" Windsail turned to face Queen Bee with a dark look on her face. "Don't you _ever _try a stunt like that _ever _again!" she growled with menace. "Being manipulated like that... it'll completely shatter his pride! It'll break him! For that... I cannot forgive you!"

"Oh? And what will Moku-chan do about it?" Queen Bee smirked, seemingly waving away the comment with a flick of her wrist. The trees around them shook slightly as something rustled inside them. Windsail stared down Queen Bee, preparing her next move. Ikki was glancing in the trees, wondering what would happen next. Ikki squinted into the bushes, searching for a way to win.

_Is there something shining there? Wait a second... that's a..._

"Windsail, 3-O-clock!" Windsail, instinctively jumped backwards at the sound of Ikki's voice. A thin stream of air streamed past her face from her right, scratching her cheek.

"Whoa... was that a bullet?"

"Windsail, there's a whole army of medabots coming from behind the trees! And Metabee is still active!"

"What!?"

Queen Bee giggled, as if finding the whole situation amusing.

"Did you really think that Metabee was the _only _medabot to feel the power of my Toxic Bliss? These are ALL the medabots I have hit in this city today!" random medabots began crawling from every corner, climbing out of the ground, from the trees, from the air, pretty much everywhere. The very sky itself was all just one massive sea of medabots. Ikki looked at them all, recognizing a few familiar faces amongst them.

_Are these other kids like us who wanted to fight using their medabots? Is this how we're gonna end up?_

"Windsail!"

"I got it, I got it! Escape them!" Windsail flew into the sky, just barely escaping a force of grasping, zombie like medabot hands, Metabee's among them. Air type medabots swooped in from the skies, grabbing Queen Bee's limbs and dragging her back down.

"Windsail, transform arm part!" Windsail's left arm started glowing pink as it transformed into the arm with a gold stopwatch. All the medabots around her flew off as Windsail shot into the sky again, and then around the enemy force, sweeping them off their feet in one supercharged burst of power and speed. For every defeated medabot, two more would just crawl over the rising mountain of medabot bodies in their attempt to serve their Queen. Queen Bee was laughing in a sadistic way the whole time as Windsail's parts were shut down, one after the other.

"Did you seriously think you could win? How pathetic... And I was getting high hopes for you. I guess going all out was a mistake."

Windsail looked around her, counting how many bodies left to make. Her right arm was hanging loosely off of her shoulder and her left leg could barely support her.

**Right arm and legs at 100% damage. Functions ceased. Left arm and head at 80% damage.**

"Windsail, I've got a plan!"

"Any ideas now are much appreciated!"

"What I need you to do is this..." … … … …

"Awesome! But your explanation was a bit too long!" Windsail said as her left arm shut neared critical condition from more beatings.

"Don't worry, it makes things easier!"

"Hope you're right!" Windsail began transforming her medaparts just as all of the medabots dived on her. Metabee pushed a button on his medawatch.

"Transporting demolition parts!" A flash of blue light engulfed the whole park as medaparts transported to the obscured form of Windsail. The park was silent. Queen Bee looked bored now.

"I thought this one would put up more of a fight. Alright boys, lets go." Queen Bee began walking away from the field, not even bothering to fly.

"**Who do you think I am?!" **Queen Bee jerked around behind her to see all of her medabots getting tossed high into the air with a massive tornado. Right in the middle of it, Windstorm was standing, screaming in anger with her upgraded medaparts on her.

"Foul!" Mr Referee said. "Changing medaparts in battle! Penalty is, disqul..."

"Wait!" Ikki shouted. "I haven't changed a thing. I just put extra parts on top of the old ones, patching Windsail's busted parts together with the busted Windstorm parts. Isn't that how demolition mode works?" Mr Referee stared in astonishment as he saw that Windstorm did indeed still look very damaged, and out of place. But Windstorm none the less! There was nothing in the rules that said that he _couldn't _use improvised parts like demolition parts. But then again, maybe the rules _did _say something about it. But with the fate of Japan at stake, he wouldn't be responsible for his loss over a rule, no matter how important.

"Windstorm, do it!" Ikki shouted. "Firework manoeuvre!" Windstorm's medaparts transformed into red samurai looking medaparts with fists. The same stretching medaparts from Shrimplips' Gokudo. Windstorm stared down the wave of incoming medabots, with Metabee and Queen Bee leading the way.

"Don't think that you can win just because you have new medaparts!" Queen Bee screamed. "You're finished!"

"Shut up!" Windstorm screamed. "My fight's not with you, it's with Metabee! You're just in the way!"

Windstorm jumped into the air with the medaforce glow all around her again. "This is my finishing move... **Araumi no...**"

All the medabots jumped and flew up to where Windstorm was in the air. Queen Bee held her stingers out in front of her. Windstorm didn't seem fazed by this sight at all as she quickly rotated her torso around her waist. Then her legs started spinning as well... then her arms around her shoulders... Her whole body now seemed to be rotating crazily around in a cream coloured and red ball. One stretch punch extended outwards from the ball, punching a random medabot in the face. Half a second later, a stretched out disjointed Windstorm leg stretched out and kicked Metabee in the stomach. Limbs began randomly tossing out of the ball, slowly picking up speed as they knocked down the enemies one by one. Finally, it seemed like her very limbs were multiplying with each strike.

"What the..." Queen Bee started before a foot lodged itself in her jaw.

"**Araumi no, HANABI!" (Riptide, Firework!****荒海****の****花火****)**

The attack was knocking out scores of medabots in one go, truly looking like a gigantic metal firework now with medaparts flying in every direction. Metabee barely withstood three seconds of it before his medal ejected into a nearby bush, and Queen Bee had no chance of escape as her wings were instantly crushed, along with her legs and arms. The grass underneath them was pounded relentlessly with each attack as the earth under it was torn up into pieces. Queen Bee's untouchable body was being destroyed pretty quickly.

**1% damage, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%... Number of strikes: 84. Overall damage, 99%. Systems critical.**

Finally, the giant firework display came to a halt as Windstorm fell to the ground. Her fists were dented and covered with oil, but otherwise fine. Her legs however which weren't designed to stretch had been twisted and strung out of shape, not even supporting Windstorm as she fell to the ground. Her waist and other joints looked like they had seen better days. Ikki smiled in triumph as he saw Queen Bee defeated on the floor with broken stingers and leaking her deadly poison. Metabee was also on the ground with his medal nearby. Ikki stared down at Queen Bee with a smile on his face.

"Man! That was some robattle! You're a really strong medabot, and if you had a medafighter to back you up, I don't think I would've beaten you! But I'm guessing you wanna know how I beat you, right?"

"I guess so," Queen Bee croaked, her voice barely recognisable. "I have to know, how did you do that move? I've never seen a medabot with a technique like that." Ikki looked at Windsail as if asking if it was okay to tell her. Windsail nodded her head in approval.

"It wasn't as genius as you think. It was a move I saw in an old anime. The main character who has the power to stretch twists his whole body around while punching and kicking in every direction. I told Windstorm to copy it by using her destroyed parts to her advantage. When her medaparts got damaged, the joints became too busted to work properly, and so allowed her to twist everywhere. I then gave her the upgraded parts so she could transform her arms into stretch arms. From there, it's improvised. Even the name of the move was copied. From **Gomu Gomu no, Hanabi **(Elastic Firework) to **Araumi no, Hanabi **"

Queen Bee's eyes closed as she realised that this amateur beat her using something he saw on TV.

"I can't believe this... Well, you're resourceful. Though I doubt your team will win against the boss. Can you do me a favour kid?"

"What?"

"Keep my medal for a while. And my medaparts. If you make it to the boss, I can be retrieved from your dead body. But if by some chance you can win, you can keep the medal and parts. Who knows what you'll do with me. Keep me as a trophy? Smash me? Who knows..."

"Hey wait! I won't smash your medal!" But Queen Bee had already ejected from her body, her medal clinking on the ground. The large ridiculous baboon pattern on it didn't match her personality at all. Except for maybe them both looking mischievous. Ikki sighed as he picked up the medal. "I wonder why she was working for these guys? Don't most medabots have a revulsion to harming humans?"

"Unless they have a rare medal," Windstorm said as she found Metabee's medal. She had just beaten her rival in a robattle, but somehow, the victory felt hollow. Ikki turned to Windstorm.

"What do you mean?"

"Medabots are programmed to avoid attacking humans at all costs, and even the rare ones that will such as the ones belonging to the rubberrobos won't kill anybody. Rare medals however cannot be programmed, and will have a personality that nobody can anticipate. That means you might have some trigger-happy idiots like _him_." Windstorm put the medal back in Metabee's body and waited for his systems to reboot as the nanobots inside him repaired the minor damage. "But this time, I'm not sure what was wrong with them. None of them had rare medals from what I could tell, and they weren't first medals either. Her medal wasn't very special. Just a common Monkey medal. Although that explains why her hand-to-hand skills were way better than mine with my alien medal. Either way Ikki, what'll you do with her medal? She is our enemy so we can't keep it without being blown to pieces, but we can't leave such a scary enemy with them. Any ideas?"

Ikki looked at the gold coin like object glittering in his hands. If he looked hard enough, he could see a few circuits tangled deep inside the medalias with one chip in the centre. The whole medal was emitting a smoke from possibly overheating.

"I think I'll... You know what? We'll decide later! Right now we've gotta meet up with the others and help them. We're gonna rescue Samantha, and save the world... **For Love and Freedom!"**

. . .

"Ikki... Were you just trying to sound cool?"

. . .

_**Meanwhile against Grand Slam...**_

"Arcbeetle, initiate Prominence attack!"

"Arc-dash, the appendix now!"

"Tyrellbeetle, cover them!"

"Redrun, demolition mode!"

Grandslam and Tyrellbeetle had their hands locked against each other in a pushing battle, one second Tyrellbeetle would win, the next second it was Grandslam. Redrun sprinted to the two of them on four legs, ripping holes in the metal mothership with his huge claws. Grandslam's eyes seemed to almost be lit up in an amused smile.

"I'll admit brothers, you've got spunk. But ya no match for my **Grand Slam attack!"** Grandslam pushed down on Tyrellbeetle, smashing him down into the ground before picking him up again, ripping pieces of metal out of the saucer. In an insane burst of power, he spun Tyrellbeetle around 360 degrees and into the charging Redrun. They collided, their medaparts mangling together as they were both flung away and into Arc-dash. Arcbeetle's canon finished charging just then.

"Arcbeetle, fire!" Arcbeetle let loose a massive oak tree trunk sized yellow canon, obliterating the metal underneath it as it flew to Grandslam. Grandslam gripped the massive sword attached to his back and in one fluid motion, yanked it off of his back and into the attack. The Prominence canon instantly split into five separate pieces, flying off in the distance.

"He... cut through the Prominence," Hikaru stuttered in shock. There had only been two medabots in existence to stop the Prominence. And they were Metabee, and the giant Mega-Emperor, Giganko. And here in front of him was a Jamaican medabot similar to Tyrellbeetle who did it barely breaking a sweat. Grandslam barely gave him any time to recover as he jumped into the air, disappearing from view.

"Everybody, run!" Banjo screamed. "We don't know where he'll land next!"

As if on cue, a fireball suddenly fell from the skies, smashing dead on into Arcbeetle before he could try and avoid it. The fireball went straight through the floor, deep into the saucer, away from view. The only sign that there was even a medabot there was the data registering on Hikaru's medawatch.

**80% damage to head and arm parts. 100% damage to leg part. Unable to continue battle from current location.**

"Arcbeetle!" Arcbeetle was nowhere to be seen, and the only sign of him was a re-emerging Grandslam climbing out of the hole holding one of Arcbeetle's boosters.

"Yo man, that guy's got some serious skills on him! Used me like a cushion before he landed! Had to shut 'em up like a badman! Mixed up his legs an all."

Zuru and Ginkai slowly took a step back as they subconsciously began thinking of ways to escape.

"Hey Zuru, thought of a plan?" Ginkai asked as Banjo ordered Redrun to fight again. Space Medafighter X was frozen solid as he appeared to just be staring down the gaping hole where his medabot fell down.

"Not this time Ginkai," Zuru said quietly. "I don't think we can beat this guy, even if the whole team ganged up on him. We're just stalling him until the rest can get inside. Space Medafighter X probably knew that."

"No way man... Did you also know?"

"Yeah... That's why I didn't ask Akianna or Ikki to come with us. We only needed people who could hold him off with us, but we can't risk all of the other strong guys."

"So we're just canon-fodder?"

"Yes..."

Ginkai gripped his hair tightly, as if he could somehow tear away the panic that was invading his thoughts.

"We're dead, We're dead, We're dead, We're dead, We're dead! Zuru! Think of something!"

Grandslam had just taken care of Redrun and was now running towards Arc-Dash and Tyrellbeetle with his massive sword dragging on the floor behind him.

"You twos are next! **Grand Slam att..."**

Two missiles exploded on Grandslam's head, bowling him over before he instantly straightened himself up. Everyone turned to the source of the missiles.

"Little boys shouldn't play with knifes," and unknown voice said.

"Who are you?" Grandslam asked as he got up. Everyone's eyes widened as they noticed it was a new arrival. Standing there in front of them were three figures. One tall figure, and two smaller medabot sized ones. As he stepped closer, everyone got a better look.

He was a very tall young adult, eighteen or nineteen from the look of him. He had tanned skin and a small blond afro. His eyes were a piercing blue that seemed to go straight through you like daggers. He was staring straight at Grand Slam with a dark expression, and his towering height seemed to accentuate this perfectly. Whoever he was, he wasn't there for games. Grandslam shifted slightly as he began to feel uneasy. It was normally _him _who made others feel nervous with his massive sword. Having the same trick done on him wasn't very amusing. Grandslam kept thinking how karma had interesting ways of dealing with people.

The new medafighter had two medabots by his side. The one on his right looked like a heavily modified Saikachis or Metabee. He had Metabee's signature missile canons, Warbandit's red left arm machine gun and Sumilidon's classic yellow legs. His right arm was a Robo-Emperor style Bombarder part. All the napalm bombs inside were aimed menacingly at Grandslam. To finish off the arsenal, Arcbeetle's Prominence canon was attached to him, making him truly quite terrifying.

The other medabot on his left was another custom modified medabot. A Blackbeetle this time with Kilobot parts. Its head and chest were the ordinary Blackbeetle parts, it had a sub-machine gun on its right arm, similar to Gun-Desperado's, the first kilobot created. Its left arm looked like a napalm arm with four barrel holes. All three of them had cuts and dents all over them from the numerous battles they'd been through in the whole day. The setting sun had finally set behind them, turning the whole sky dark behind them as night crept past them. Grandslam gripped his sword even tighter as he prepared to attack.

"Don't underestimate me!" He screamed as he launched forward, dragging his sword through the ground again.

"Saikachis, Bombarder part." The Saikachis brought up its arm, firing the barrage of napalm attacks, as if trying to flood Grandslam under fire. Grandslam whacked them all with the flat bit of his blade like baseballs, nearly blowing himself to pieces too. "Now Blackbeetle." The Blackbeetle ran forward at surprisingly high speeds, shooting out all eight of her missiles in one burst of power. Grandslam couldn't even try to defend himself as the momentum from the swing had pulled him straight into the missiles. A massive explosion, followed by a volley of smaller explosions erupted, forcing the younger medafighters to cover their eyes. Grandslam ran out of the explosion, enraged at the missiles. Dropping his sword, he punched the Blackbeetle hard in the face, cracking the glass visor (or plastic visor) as she flew backwards to her medafighter. Before she could harm anybody, she backflipped in the air, landing on her feet and grinding herself to a halt. Apart from the cracked visor, she looked presentable.

"Alright Saikachis, use the Prominence canon!"

A hand gripped the newcomer's shoulder suddenly. Space Medafighter X was standing next to him

"You have skill, but if we want to win we're gonna have to team up here."

Leo looked at the golden mask talking to him and instantly understood that this guy was strong.

"Alright, you've got my attention," he said with a powerful commanding voice. "Any ideas?"

"For now just robattle like normal. Don't bother with the Prominence though. I'll give you the signal when I'm ready."

"All right, you hear that Saikachis? Don't use _'that' _yet. Blackbeetle, you know what to do!"

Blackbeetle and Saikachis both aimed their left bomb arms forward, firing a deadly barrage of napalm bombs. Without the weight of his sword slowing him down, Grandslam was literally running through all of the missiles. He jumped in the air, grabbed two rockets, and flung them both back at the owners.

"Tsk..." Saikachis kicked the returning missile aside as if it was nothing. Blackbeetle gave her missile a backhand slap away from herself, the explosion lighting up the arena.

"Did you seriously think..." Saikachis began.

"...that our own missiles..." Blackbeetle picked up.

"**Would do anything?!" **They both screamed together as they both charged into Grandslam together, full body tackling him to the ground. They both began punching Grandslam's face repeatedly, Blackbeetle landing slow heavy punches while Saikachis seemed to be clawing and punching like a wild animal. Grandslam kicked them both off of him and sprung back onto his feet.

"Arcbeetle, now!" A hand ripped out of the floor, latching itself onto Grandslam's leg. Grandslam looked down in disbelief.

"No way man!"

"Yes way!" Arcbeetle's other hand ripped out through the metal as well, grabbing both feet. Space Medafighter X turned to the three kids who were watching. "Ginkai, Zuru! What are you doing? Help fight! Banjo isn't doing anything because Redrun is injured. You two still have perfectly good medabots! Help!"

"R-right!" their medabots said instead of their medafighters. Tyrellbeetle and Arc-Dash both transformed into action mode, fusing together to make the notorious Masterbeetle. Masterbeetle drove towards Grandslam, launching himself into his face before they flipped over, disconnecting again to hold onto Grandslam's arms. Blackbeetle then took careful aim with her sub-machine gun, switching it to a rifle mode.

"I'm clearing the path for you, Saikachis!" she said as she skillfuly shot all of Grandslam's joints.

**Warning. All medaparts except head at 100% damage. Head at 10% damage.**

"I'll toss ya all off of me! I'm Grandslam! The strongest bot alive, ya hear me? I can't-" Grandslam stopped struggling completely and froze in his tracks. His eyes closed peacefully in understanding.

_I see. They beat Queen Bee. Rahspect. I don't think I can win anymore. But that won't stop me from trying! _With more energy than before, Grandslam tossed Arc-Dash and Tyrellbeetle off of him and off the entire saucer, sending them sliding off the saucer. Grandslam then started pounding on Arcbeetle's fingers trying to get them off.

"Hey Saikachis, are you ready?"

"Ready? I was manufactured ready!"

The whole time, Saikachis was charging up the Prominence cannon. For that matter, all of his medaparts were glowing yellow.

"Do it now! Use the **Starlight Explosion!"**

"**Right! This is it! Feel the lions roar!"**

All his medaparts fired at once, missiles, machine guns, napalm bombs, napalm missiles, and the finishing move, the Prominence! Grandslam had only just removed Arcbeetle's hands when the attack hit him. Every circuit in his body, every chip of armour, every wire, every plate was hit in one barrage of attacks. Saikachis could barely stand upright from the recoil of every attack he had going 'bang' at once.

"Come on, Come on, Come on, Come on, Come on! You're nothing to me! I'm on overdrive!"

Saikachis was almost roaring with energy as his weapons struck, one after the other. Chips of his own armour were even flying off, but it was nothing to what would become Grandslam. His armour was torched from the outside by the Prominence and napalm attacks, making his insides all soft and tender. The seeker missiles blew out holes in the destroyed armour and the machine gun shredded the weakened inside. Within seconds, Grandslam was torn away. Finally, all of the guns ran out of ammo. Mr Referee suddenly appeared there like a ninja after having just announced Ikki's victory.

"Functions ceased! The winner is, team Space Medafighter X!"

Banjo smiled slightly as he retrieved Redrun's body, admitting his defeat, but basking in his teams victory. Ginkai and Arc-Dash were doing a victory dance and Tyrellbeetle and Arcbeetle were both lying down on their backs exhausted. Blackbeetle was supporting Saikachis who could barely stand after that attack. Space Medafighter X stood staring at the newcomer who was congratulating his medabots with a surprisingly bright smile.

"Who are you anyway?" he asked. "You're a bit too strong to be some ordinary medafighter visiting medaropolis. Unless you're gonna tell me you came all the way here just for a challenge. What're you doing here?"

"I'm just an ordinary guy who was going to the nearby university. All though how do you expect me to tell you who _I _am when you don't even show me your face?"

Space Medafighter X nodded his head as if saying touché.

"Well if you won't tell me who you are, at least tell me your name."

the newcomer smiled a bit.

"The name's... Leo."

"Glad to have you in the team Leo!" Ginkai said with a big smile. "If you never noticed, the whole city is about to blow up unless _we _do something about it! You see the thing we're standing on? We've gotta blow it to smithereens!"

"I guessed as much. All right. Unless I help you, my school can't keep going. I'll lend you my power."

"All right! Lets go!" Zuru was standing far away from the group, not paying much attention to the boisterous Ginkai, Arc-Dash and Tyrellbeetle.

_I was useless again. I didn't have the power to save anybody, even with Tyrellbeetle's extreme amount of strength. I can't believe I failed again..._

A large hand gripped his shoulder making him jump. He turned around to see Leo towering over him.

"A man must live a life of no regrets. You might feel as if you've screwed up here, but in reality, you really _have _screwed up."

"What?"

"Nobody can waste their time looking to their past mistakes, they just have to look forward to their future success. That's why humans have eyes at the front of their heads and not the back. So they can see forward and not gaze upon their birthplace for eternity." Zuru stared up at the man towering above him and instantly blinked away the tears that where welling up behind his eyes. Wiping the last of them off on his arm he started smiling.

"Thanks..."

"Well, shall we go?" Tyrellbeetle said. "We really can't leave the rest to Metabee and Sumilidon. That wouldn't be fair at all."

"And it's time for revenge," Arc-Dash said. "Don't forget guys, we have lost friends here. Peppercat... Peppercat's gone." Everyone became silent as they remembered that not only was Peppercat destroyed, but that Arc-Dash had a thing for her. He didn't explode in rage when he was first told the news like everyone thought he would. Maybe that's why nobody remembered until just then that Arc-Dash was hit hardest, with the exception of Samantha herself. He had kept it entirely to himself. In fact, he even pretended to ignore it when Arcbeetle arrived with that 'I'm you're biggest fan' stunt. Arc-Dash began glowing with a rainbow light all over. "Somebody's gonna pay for this," he growled.

"Calm down Arc-Dash, save it for the big fight!" Ginkai reminded him. After seeing everything cool down, Space Medafighter X spoke up.

"Now that the party's over, we can now meet everyone else." Zuru stepped forward ahead of everyone.

"Let's save the world... **For love and Freedom!"**

**Hmmm... I think I'm a bit off schedule... either way, prepare for it people! Next chapter, will be the decisive battle inside the main saucer! With the added help of Leo and his two custom medabots, will they finally get the power to destroy the people behind this war? And will they be able to rescue Samantha? What are Ikki's plans for Queen Bee's medal, and what **_**is **_**a Tochikan anyway?**

**The Real Deal's: This is SPIRIT!**

**AN: When Windstorm uses the Riptide firework, there is some Japanese Kanji written nearby of the same move. I don't know if it will show on mobile phones and such, but it is Riptide Firework, or Firework of the Rough seas.**

**Leo belongs to ShadowLDrago. Thanks dude!**


	14. For Love and Freedom (part 2)

**End of this arc! Prepare for it! This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This is Spirit!**

**Chapter 14: For Love and Freedom (Part 2)**

Dust swirled around the tarmac road, flinging itself on a whim at whoever happened to be nearby. The memories of the forgotten sun were far off in the distance as an orange and yellow backdrop against a dark blue sky. The first of the stars awakened, twinkling down on those below. As the day began to rest, night took over, creeping towards everything on the surface. It is very rare that anybody would take the time to admire _and _contemplate this scene. Not if they live in a city. Alone, seated on a water tower, a cloaked figure stared down at the city scene below him. For once, he could not think of any comforting words of Wisdom, not even for himself.

_Why must humans always fight? What do they gain from it that is worth countless lives but not their own? I do not understand it. Perhaps I never will..._

In contrast to the scene up above in the night sky, the city below was in absolute shambles. Just the 24 Hour Hop mart was a fine example.

"Earthkrona, transform head medapart and search for Ant type parts!"

The green tank like medabot's head began rapidly transforming into the jelly like substance. Its head rapidly switched between different parts before finally stopping on a green helmet with ant antennae and pincers. Tiny turrets began dropping out of two small hatches where its ears would have been.

"Not so fast..." Two blue flashes swept through the air, dashing against Earthkrona, knocking her backwards at least 10 metres.

"Now, activate them!" Earthkrona's eyes flashed momentarily as all the turrets activated, peppering the two medabots with lasers. The two merely jumped out of the circle of lasers, taking no damage. Like bolts of lightning, they ran through everybody's medabots, knocking them all down before they were all hit by the Robo-Empress's napalm missiles.

"Chrome, Gun-metal blast!" Chrotojil's missiles began glowing green before exploding as a barrage of missiles ejected.

Gunpowder medapart at 150% power. Warning. Medal defect at critical levels.

Robo-Empress stepped in the way of the missiles, roaring like a Tyrannosaurus. The missiles all vibrated from the force of the screech, exploding prematurely. Twin-Scissors dashed towards Chrome as he collapsed, blacking out again.

"No Chrome, not now, don't go down now!" DC said panicked.

"Sumilidon, Shadow Sword!" Sumilidon launched towards Twin-Scissors, blocking his sword with his own claws, protecting Chrome's lifeless body as DC retrieved him. Whitesword appeared right next to Sumilidon, kicking him all the way back to Koji. The two samurai like medabots started their charge again.

"Nutranurse, help!" Nutranurse put both of her arms up above her, blocking out their attacks with a massive pink force field.

"Useless," Twin-Scissors said as he repeatedly hammered it again and again. "What you do is useless!" His fist crashed into the force field, smashing it into pieces as Nutranurse fell back from the shock of it.

"Aokshi, use the Redblaze attack!" A massive red fireball flew towards Twin-Scissors, bowling him over in one shot. Whitesword almost flew over to Aokshi who was brandishing a gleaming red sword that was attached to his arm. They clashed, causing a massive shockwave to spread throughout the field.

"Akia, what do I do?" Aokshi asked as he slowly began getting pushed back with the Robo-Empress lurching slowly towards him.

"I don't know, I don't know!"

"We can't win this robattle," Miss Nae said. "We just have to hold out until the others arrive."

"And when is that?" Koji asked. "What if they _don't _make it back in time? They were meant to be the distraction while _we _won! We can't depend on them to win for us!"

"But look at everyone," Miss Nae said pointing at the damaged medabots. Blackbeetle, Brass, Kantaroth, Komandog, Aquacrown and Saldron were all lying on the ground or being tended to by their medafighters. All of them had their medals ejected. To make things worse, Tak was practically in shock from a very well aimed missile that exploded right next to him. DC was also clutching his stomach in pain from a punch to his gut. Karen's right pigtail was chopped to just below her ear and she looked genuinely scared, rarely commanding Nutranurse to fight and instead healing everyone who was injured. Miss Nae herself was clutching her right arm tightly after a brief encounter with Whitesword.

Koji clenched his fists tighter as his mind furiously worked to figure out a way out of the situation.

_I can't believe we're losing like this! It's only three medabots... __three medabots! __How come we can't beat these guys?_

Whitesword ran towards Sumilidon with his sword dragging behind him. His eyes flashed wider than normal as one of the communications he had with his partners got severed.

"Queen Bee... got beaten?" Whitesword came to an abrupt halt and jumped back warily. "No... it must be a mistake. A glitch in my systems. These guys couldn't beat you, Queen Bee." The group looked at the enemy medabots confused as they now looked like they were on the defensive.

"Queen Bee? Do they mean that yellow bee medabot from before? That was who Ikki was fighting. Ikki won?"

Twin-Scissors flinched as another signal went dead.

"Grandslam... what a savage way to be defeated. No matter. Prepare yourselves!" All three medabots charged in for the finishing blow, with Robo-Empress firing her missiles.

"Sumilidon, Disruptor!"

Sumilidon began glowing green all over his body. All the incoming missiles exploded before reaching anybody. Whitesword and Twin-Scissors both leaped back immediately before they were engulfed by the explosions and rising clouds of dust. A raging roar bellowed out across the field as the Robo-Empress stormed out of the explosions aiming all of its guns at Koji and Sumilidon.

"Windstorm, Shadow Sword!"

A bright white flash streaked past Robo-Empress, knocking her backwards in shock. Seconds later, the guns attached slowly began sliding off of its arms, screeching as metal grinded against metal. The hulking dinosaur like robot looked at its arm as it began to register its defeat before erupting in clouds of smoke and fire. The group looked for the white flash that had defeated the Robo-Empress in one shot.

"Hey guys, did you miss me?" a voice said cheerily.

_No way, is that Ikki? _Koji asked himself as the dust began to clear. Two figures stepped out of the dust. An ordinary boy wearing a red shirt and blue shorts stepped out of the dust smiling. "I can't believe you didn't finish them off yet," Ikki said as he returned to the group. "And here I was thinking that I might have taken too long to get here but actually it was just in time!"

The white flash returned to Ikki's side as a shorter cream and red medabot with dented parts and large gaping holes in her armour.

"No sweat. After that last fight, one Robo-Empress is a piece of cake!" Windstorm said smugly. Hanging over her shoulder was the yellow frame of Metabee. His medal was glinting in Ikki's medawatch.

"Ikki! About time you showed up dude!" Rintarou screamed waving his fist around, nearly punching DC in the jaw.

"So you're back huh?" Akkiana said with a slight half smile. "Great job. Heard you took out Queen Bee."

"Yeah, but it wasn't easy," Ikki said rubbing the back of his head shyly, trying not to get overconfident after his victory.

Whitesword and Twin-Scissors watched the two new arrivals suspiciously.

"It looks like the people who beat Queen Bee," Whitesword said warily. "We must be cautious. They beat Robo-Empress in one shot."

"She was the weakest member in our team," Twin-Scissors assured him. "The STG type could have done it too if he wasn't protecting his friends and fighting us at the same time. But nonetheless, they are dangerous. Queen Bee would not be defeated by third-rates."

"Then let's end this now!"

The two charged in rage at the newcomer.

"Snap, they're after us!" DC said as he took a few steps back. "Alright Chrotojil, prepare for..." Chrome was lying on the floor, completely exhausted. "Come on Chrome, get up!"

"I don't wanna," Chrome said sleepily. "I can't move anymore..."

"You might never move again too. Let's go!" DC picked up Chrotojil and hauled him over his shoulder. "Darn it... when we get back I'll mix you up myself. Don't be so lazy!"

An earth shattering roar spread through the field. Multiple explosions went off in succession around where the defeated Robo-Empress was. The purple and black robot stood back up practically reeking of death as its hunger for blood was brought forth again. Robo-Empress was back.

"They just don't quit do they? Koji said gritting his teeth. Everybody braced themselves as it aimed what was left of its guns straight at them.

"Formation Delta, move, move, move!" seven grey streaks of smoke swept across the sky, blocking out the picture of the sky above. Everybody looked up to see a squadron of fighter jets looping through the skies in perfect unison, descending rapidly to the ground. A barrage of missiles ejected from them, slamming straight into the enemies. The Robo-Empress roared in rage, completely unfazed by the attack as it let loose a barrage of red lasers. All the fighters scrambled, breaking formation as they dived away from the lasers. A laser slammed directly into one fighter, burning a hole straight through the left wing. The whole jet spiralled wildly out of the skies, heading into what was left of the convenience store. Two small figures were seen getting ejected out of the jet before it crashed into the store, exploding in a brilliant blaze of colours.

One of the figures began to slow down as a parachute billowed out from its back. The other figure appeared to completely stop in midair with fire shooting out of its back. Rocket thrusters appeared to be holding it up.

The two figures slowly descended to the ground, avoiding the wreckage from the jet. Explosions kept on going off in the store from the fighter.

The two figures landed on the ground. The smaller one with the rocket thrusters was an Air-Ptera with a shattered visor and bents all over its body. Patches of steel and wires were showing through cracks in its armour and its right wing was cut in half. The other figure next to it was a teenage girl in the Select Corps uniform. There were blood soaked bandages tied around her legs and arms and one large strip tied to her waist. Her left arm was heavily bandaged while her right hand was covered up by a burnt glove. The armour that was around her right arm was destroyed, possibly beyond repair. Her hair was soaked with blood and very unkempt and matted. A blood soaked bandana was tied around her head, barely recognisable from whatever it was.

She took out a pistol from a holster tied to her right leg and aimed for the Robo-Empress.

"We meet again, payback for last time," she snarled, adding some foul words before firing. The bullets all ricocheted off of its armour as it turned in rage to face her. It let out a roar as it shot out a massive red energy blast. She rolled to her left, just barely avoiding the blast, and out of the ashes of the blast, the Air-Ptera charged after the massive enemy, slashing at it with his sharpened wings. The Robo-Empress slapped him back towards the Select Corps officer. She dived and caught the Air-Ptera. "You alright Air-Hawk?"

"I'm fine. Just watch your health, Sakura," he said before his eyes faded off from the stress of the fighting from before. Sakura clenched her fists tightly, or as tightly as her left fist could handle.

"Don't worry, I'll get us outta here," she said as she attached him to her back as if he were a backpack. She stood up as rage began to fill her. She looked up at the other medafighters. "Civilians, get out of here! This is too dangerous for you guys to handle! An armoured escort should be arriving shortly. Stay hidden for now while we handle it!"

DC, Koji, Akkia and Ikki all shook their heads in unison.

"It seems she doesn't know who we are, does she?" DC said.

"It can't be helped now, can it?" Koji said smugly.

"Whatever, she can handle these three though," Akkia said preparing to leave.

"Just ignore her and keep moving to the saucer," Ikki commanded. Sakura looked at them confused as they ran into the saucer.

_Perhaps they don't take me seriously because I'm so young? _She thought to herself.

"Please, do not be alarmed by my young age!" she yelled. "I am a well trained police officer, and a Select Corps trainee! My being in High school has no effect o my skill!" Still no reply. "I... I'm a Black belt too! And very good at kendo! And... I didn't just steal a jet using my father's keys! I actually know what I'm doing!"

"Shut up!" DC yelled back at her. "When it comes to robattles, _we're _the professionals! Not you!"

Sakura was completely taken aback by the lack of fear in all of them as they marched into the saucer. The other three enemy medabots were all too busy holding off the Select Corps to worry about them. Or her for that matter.

_Darn it! Those idiots will get themselves killed! This isn't a robattle. It never was!_

Two figures leaped down from literally out of nowhere. An elderly man with a ninja type medabot walked in after them.

"Wa-wait! Old man! It's too dangerous to go in there!"

The elder turned around to face her.

"How rude! Treat your elders with a bit more respect! Start by calling me Old man 'sir'! Second by not calling me Old man! I'm only thirty two!"

"What?"

"Just call me, Mr Referee!"

And with that, they walked in after them.

_Thirty two? Seriously? But ignoring that, I can't let them go any further!_

Mentally kicking herself for being so rash about her decisions, she charged after them into the saucer.

. . .

Ikki looked around him at the interior of the saucer.

"Hey guys, does this place remind you of anything?" He asked everybody.

"Like what? Come on, tell me, tell me!" Rintarou said shouting at the top of his voice.

"The World Robattle stadium," Erika said as she began to remember visiting Ikki and Koji backstage. Indeed, the hallway they were inside was a lot like a large hallway in a football stadium. "This place is just like the WRC stadium, just waaaay bigger!"

Now however, instead of posters of past stars on the walls, there were complicated diagrams of medabots and weapons. It was all painted in a monotonous purple with lines of bolts drilled into the walls every five metres.

"Not very original for a flying saucer," Akkia said looking around. "It seems like a combo between a football stadium and a cheap UFO in an old 2011 movie."

"I dunno, I quite liked the movies from that year," DC said. "And from 2010. But for some reason, everything after 2012 became garbage."

"I disagree," Koji said. "But more importantly, we shouldn't be talking about movies in here. We could be attacked at any moment."

As if on cue, a large section of the roof caved in, falling startlingly close to Ikki and the reactivated Metabee.

"Whoa! Where the hell did that come from?" Metabee yelled as more of the ceiling began to fall.

"Everybody take cover!" Someone said. Ikki couldn't tell who had spoken over all the noise. All he cared about was escaping the falling chunks of metal. A multitude of glowing eyes peered out from behind the smoke. Before anyone could even react to it they were already bombarded under a hail of missiles and rockets. Earthkrona drove up in front of everyone, creating a massive green force field blocking out the bullets. Her arms were morphed into a pair of thin grey arms with bandages wrapped around them. Very similar to ghost parts belonging to Mistyghost.

A troop of Robo-Emperors and Robo-Empresses stormed out of the crack in the ceiling, firing in all directions, even occasionally themselves. Another crash spread through the hallway as another hole opened up in the ceiling. Eleven figures dropped down from the ceiling.

"Tyrellbeetle, go!"

"Blackbeetle, take them down!"

Explosions flashed through the air, clouding out whatever was happening beyond the cloud of smoke. Screams and bending metal was all that could be heard before a Robo-Emperor was seen flying out of the smoke. Tyrellbeetle jumped out of the smoke after it. With his eyes glowing bright red with rage, he grabbed its spaghetti like legs and swung it around himself rapidly, smashing its head against the walls way too often for it to be healthy. Finally with a primal roar, he smashed it against the wall again, smashing it through the wall into the neighbouring room.

"Alright! That's how you get the job done!" Tyrellbeetle exclaimed clenching his fist tightly. The smoke cleared behind him to reveal an army of Robo-Emperors all collapsed on the floor with ejected medals. The modified Blackbeetle was sitting on top of one of them like a it was a bench, swinging her feet in its face, kicking it again and again.

"Well that was a good warm up," she said as she jumped off. Saikachis blowing at his gun barrels to clear the smoke away.

"So can we go now?" he asked sounding slightly bored. "This place aint enough for me."

"Don't get cocky now guys," Leo said wading over the defeated bodies. "We're in the very centre of it all. We could get jumped at any moment."

"That's why you've got me here to save you!" Ginkai said with a grin.

"Don't forget about me..." Zuru said almost silently.

"Hey, hey, medabots are just as important as you guys!" Arc-Dash said noisily as he and Arcbeetle arrived on the scene. Space Medafighter X appeared out of thin air standing in the middle of the group, startling everybody. He looked around himself seemingly confused, as if he didn't know that nobody knew that he was there the whole time.

"Great job everybody," he said, shrugging off everybody's confusion. "I'm impressed that you managed to make it this far. Especially you Ikki. You might not be the strongest here, but you perhaps had the biggest challenge fighting Queen Bee on your own. We had to get a whole team together just to keep up with Grandslam... Hey, are you listening to me?"

Ikki and Kam weren't paying him the slightest attention. Instead they were both staring intently at Leo's medabots. Metabee and Kam's Blackbeetle were also talking to their counterparts.

"No way," Ikki said. "Another Saikachis? I thought it was a custom model that only Miss Nae had especially for me! I thought I was special!"

"No, sorry Ikki," Miss Nae said. "It's only your Saikachis which was custom made for demolition mode. There are many others with the same model.

"No! And I thought I was special..." Ikki said dejectedly.

"More importantly," Kam began. "This medabot is a Kilobot, just like Blackbeetle. But all of the parts were put together from a group of other medabots..."

"I thought I was special..."

"There don't seem to be any clashing parts. All though those Prominence horns on the Saikachis, no ordinary medafighter could weld those together and have them still functioning. I commend your skill as a mechanic."

"Aw, it's not that hard," Leo said smiling brightly. "I've learnt some of this stuff in school so I'm pretty familiar with the stuff."

"You must also be pretty good to have two medabots instead of one. I hear Ikki and Zuru have a tough time of it..."

While they were talking with each other, Metabee was... well, being Metabee.

"You cheat! You're trying to copy my style! There can only be, one Metabee!"

"Please, the Saikachis swag can only be rocked by me! Keep your outdated name and reclaim your outdated parts!"

"What you talking about? I've got more skills than you'll ever know! World Robattle champion baby! Or at least Ikki says I was in the Championship..."

"You can't even remember? You must be DEFECTIVE!"

"Kikikikikai! I... am not... DEFECTIVE!"

"you're straight up defective! I bet you'll forget your name soon enough!"

"Look pal, I don't look like I was run through a washing machine, you do. So stuff it!"

"Bra, my look is what everybody's talking about!"

"Then everyone will look homeless soon enough... and you can't use action mode like that can you? I can't believe it, hahaha!"

"Who needs action mode? It's not like I'm jealous or anything!"

The two kept arguing like children while the Backbeetle's seemed to be getting along perfectly well, promising to exchange medaparts some time. Ikki had finally stopped whining about the loss of his uniqueness and was now staring Leo down evilly.

"Don't think you're so awesome just because you have two medabots like mine..."

"Huh? Is there a problem?" Leo said innocently enough. Ikki looked up at him, noticing his insane height and instantly slunk away behind Metabee. "What? What's wrong?" Leo asked confused.

"No! N-n-n-nothing. Nothing at all. Sorry f-f-for b-bothering you. I know y-y-you weren't trying to copy me..."

Leo looked at Ikki confused before shrugging his shoulders and moving ahead of the group deeper into the saucer. Everybody else followed after him. The only other sound being heard was the repetitive clinking of footsteps on metal.

"Hold it!"

Everybody turned around as they saw the flustered Sakura sprinting after them, huffing and puffing. "I... cannot... allow you... to go any further! Whew I'm tired..." Sakura came to a standstill in front of the group, heaving and wheezing.

"Oh, you're back," Koji said with very little emotion at all.

"And I was thinking you wouldn't make it," DC said with a half smile. "Thought you'd get lost outside or something."

"Who do you think I am? I'm a member of the Select Corps! Or at least I'm training to be one."

"'training' isn't enough here," Akkia said. "Unless you can tell me you're as strong as these guys, you can't come here."

"Correction, _you _can't come here!" Sakura said. "This place isn't safe for civilians. You'll get hurt!"

"Excuse me young lady," DC said. "But it appears that _you _are the one in need of the most medical attention."

"I'm trained to handle this like it was nothing, and that didn't sound elegant at all!"

"Ok seriously, what happened to you?" Rintarou asked noting her haggard appearance. "You look like... I dunno, something bad!"

Sakura looked herself over, and true enough, when she compared herself to the others she looked terrible.

"Well my plane crashed. Twice. Sorry about wrecking the store that time..."

"Wrecking what?!" Space Medafighter X screamed panicked. Everyone turned to face him, unsure of what was wrong. He quickly regained his composure and pretended not to notice anything after that, obviously nervous about something. Regaining her composure, Sakura started speaking again.

"Well it doesn't matter! I also have another mission. Phantom Renegade! AKA, Hikaru Agata, you are under arrest for causing the ten days of darkness!"

"So I caused the ten days of darkness. But how are you planning on arresting me, when you have a broken arm, a broken medabot, and a broken spirit?"

"What do you mean? I can still fight just as well as you!"

"But I may be your best bet at victory right now. You can't afford to arrest me. You know it yourself."

"I... I don't need your help or your advice... I..."

"Look out!"

DC leaped forward, pushing Sakura backwards about five metres, just before a large section of the wall smashed inwards. Chunks of steel shattered into the hallway, flying way too close to the people standing inside. A group of Belzelgas stepped out of the hole in the wall, with their visors glowing bright red. DC and Sakura stepped backwards, narrowly avoiding a swinging punch that smashed into the wall next to them.

"Krosserdog, use the decoy hammer!"

"Windstorm, transform right arm!"

Krosserdog charged forward, smashing his gargantuan fist into a Belzelga's face. While it toppled backwards, Windstorm leaped over Kroswserdog's back, morphing her sword arm into Sumilidon't classic Flexorsword part. She sliced it through the Belzelga's chest, shutting it down instantly. The rest of the Belzelga's all dived on top of Windstorm and Krosserdog, stopping them dead in their tracks.

"Don't underestimate me!" Windstorm screamed as they all flung off of her from a massive tornado. A wayward flying Belzelga was flung straight into Arcbeetle who merely held his fist out in front of himself. The Belzelga flew straight into the fist, crumpling to the ground as it shut down. Another section of the wall exploded, revealing more Belzelga's, Blackram's, and two Mega-Emperors.

"Sumilidon, Shadow Sword!"

A yellow flash split through the air, disabling multiple medabots at once, but not stopping them. The Mega-Emperors roared in rage as they fired all their guns at once. "Now Sumilidon, disrupt them!"

Random missiles began exploding prematurely, hiding them behind a cloud of dust.

"Alright, now's our chance to run!" Miss Nae said as the whole group, including Sakura, ran deeper into the saucer. Akkiana and Space Medafighter X stopped and turned around with their medabots, facing the enemys.

"What are you guys doing?" Ikki asked, seeing them keep robattling.

"We'll hold them off for a while," Akkiana said cracking her knuckles. "You guys keep going and win for us. We'll catch up if you need us."

"Wait, what if more appear?" Rintarou said as he glanced more steel and concrete being blown out. "You dude's won't make it!"

"Don't you forget who I am," Space Medafighter X said, sparing a glance back. "I cannot be defeated!"

"As long as I'm protecting Akkia, I'm invincible," Aokshi said as he concentrated a red energy ball between his hands. "My soul burns, just like my red blaze!"

"Aw come on! Why do the strong guys always leave?" DC whined as he realised that the two strongest medafighters were gone.

"Don't forget about me," Leo said with a hard look in his eyes. "I'm not gonna go down here."

"Hey guys, have you forgotten me already?" Banjo asked, pointing at his own chest with his thumb in an overconfident manner. "I won't lose to these guys!"

Sakura stared at them all with wide eyes.

_Incredible. They took out mass numbers of Belzelgas with ease! I've never seen anybody who could do that in the Select Corps. I can barely handle one of them. Not to mention two Mega-Emperors!_

"Hey... who are you guys anyway?" Sakura asked warily.

"Who, us?" DC asked with a smile. "I told you already, we're the professionals when it comes to robattles!"

"We're the best of the best!" Leo said while they were running.

"Well since she wants to know who we are, I'll introduce myself." Koji said, filling himself up with pride at someone recognising his superior qualities. "The name's Koji Karakuchi, second best medafighter in the whole of Japan!"

"DC here! Fifth strongest from Malawi Africa! Victor's got nothing on this!"

"And I'm Ikki Tenryou. The third strongest medafighter in Japan, and future strongest medafighter in the world!"

_Tenryou? Don't tell me he's... wait, these guys are..._

"Wait a second," Sakura said as it hit her. "You're Ikki Tenryou? As in, Jyouzo Tenryou's son? You're like a Legend back at HQ after stopping Giganko, and Metabee's our hero after stopping Baby Blu, along with all the other medabots who were with him! I can't believe this! It's you guys! And-and-and, I should have noticed before, but there's even Nae Akihabara with you! And-and, no way. Just, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you before! I'm sorry I didn't trust you guys before! I really am!"

"Not a problem at all, I'm used to people not trusting me," Ginkai said offhandedly. "We'll just keep on moving."

"Just one problem," Miss Nae said. Everybody turned to the older authority, waiting to hear what wisdom she had to say. "Some of us have to stop here and go back for safety, or at least repair the damaged medabots."

"Huh?"

"Well, all my elemental series are shut down or nearly shut down. Same with Krosserdog and Totalizer. Nutranurse is also running low on power, Kantaroth has taken enough damage. The only ones who can now fight are you guys. Koji, Zuru, DC, Leo, Ginkai, Banjo, and you Ikki."

"Hey, I can also fight!" Sakura said indignant. "I told you, I'm a cop!"

"Lady, you can barely stand!" Metabee said as his long winded argument with the Saikachis finally stopped.

"Yes I can!"

"You, and your medabot, are finished if you go any further," Leo said with finality. "Go back and rest with Miss Nae. You can wait by a hospital."

Without another word, the others all marched into a separate hallway as they looked for another exit.

"Well then, I guess I'll escort you out seeing as you're so beaten down," DC said. "Alright, let's go."

"Nnngg... Fine! I'm going!"

Just before everybody left, Erika stopped and looked back over her shoulder, as if meaning to say something but not getting the courage for it.

"Hey Ikki," she said.

"Huh?"

"Don't die. Whenever someone is told to be careful, they die. So I'm telling you know, don't die."

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

Erika ran off to catch up with everybody else while Sakura and DC were only just starting off.

DC and Sakura both walked slowly after the others leaving with Chrotojil, Sakura limping slightly along the way. "This is only because my team is fighting outside. I'll just help them out."

"Yeah yeah sure you will," DC said sarcastically. "Just give it a rest so I can join the others alre..."

A low rumbling noise spread through the hallway as the ground started shaking as if from an earthquake. A section of the roof fell on, blocking off Sakura and DC from the escaping group, and from Ikki's group. They disappeared from view behind a curtain of steel and concrete.

"Yo! You alright back there?" Metabee asked.

"Yeah, it's all good," DC said from behind the walls. "I'll meet up with you later!"

"You'll be okay?" Zuru asked.

"Just go! This time, you're the heroes! I've had my chance, now you go!"

The last of the group sprinted ahead, deeper into the saucer.

. . .

"Alright! This is it!" A large steel door flew open as Tyrellbeetle and Saikachis booted it down in rage. The whole group stepped inside a large hexagon shaped room. The walls were made entirely of a purple coloured metal, and the roof was completely dome shaped. The floor was made entirely of glass, but whatever was underneath it was unrecognisable. All that could be seen through the stained glass was a yellow tint. There was a large golden ring in the very end of the room hanging vertically, big enough to hold an outstretched adult inside it. Wires and electrical cords were wound all around it. Hanging in the very centre of the ring... was Samantha.

She looked so helpless hanging there. Her hands were bound by large metal gauntlets with flashing lights and panels all over them. Electric cables were wrapped around them and the large gear on her feet as well. Her blue jacket was torn apart and the edges of her jeans were frayed. Her hair was no longer tied up as usual, instead it hung loosely down her face, matted and tangled. Her orange sunglasses were cracked. Fresh tears were streaming down her face. Ikki felt a massive wave of rage swirl through his whole body at the thought that the once proud leader was now reduced to such a pitiful state. Ikki could barely understand the anger himself, nor where it came from. It even scared himself. But overriding that rage was something worse, fear. Fear that something, _anything _could have happened that he could've prevented.

"Samantha!" Ikki screamed, rushing over blindly to the ring.

"Ikki, stop!" Leo cried, reaching for his arm. Grabbing Ikki, he yanked him backwards before he could go any further. "Wait. It might be booby trapped." Leo unstrapped a black sports watch that was tied to his wrist. He chucked the watch towards the ring. Sparks exploded in the air, stopping the watch in its tracks and completely frying it. The watch shot backwards, as if repelled by some kind of force field. It clinked on the floor a few times before landing at Leo's feet. "Man... I liked that watch."

"So who told you to throw it?" Ginkai asked.

"I dunno. Just being safe."

"So what do we do? We can't leave her to hang there," Zuru said.

"What do you think we do?" Metabee asked loading his guns up. "We bust her outta there!"

"Thinking with your gut and not you brain, tin-can!" Windstorm said as she also brought up her sword. "Doesn't matter. I'm actually with you on this one."

"Must destroy worthy opponents," Banjo said as his eyes flashed a brighter red to normal.

"We've come a long way for this," Sumilidon said bringing up his claws.

"Hey don't forget me, this is payback for Roks!" Tyrellbeetle said, bringing his fists up. "Besides, that Grandslam guy really annoyed me. I need to vent my anger!"

"Let's do this people!" Saikachis, Blackbeetle and Arc-Dash said at the same time.

Ikki stared at the ring as he brought his medawatch up to his face, preparing for whatever battle there might be. All at once, every medabot fired or hacked at the invisible force field at once. Black and blue sparks flew wildly everywhere as whatever was blocking them gave way, shattering instantly as almost transparent pieces of _something _shattered inwards. The group all swarmed inside, running towards Samantha.

"Not so fast!"

A condensed wave of air accompanied by a large bang knocked the group backwards into eachother. The shockwave from the explosion rippled through the arena. Standing right in front of the ring were three medabots, staring directly at the group. Data clicked on everybody's medawatches as everyone felt the cold, gut wrenching feeling of fear.

**Redrun(2): Extreme Tech**

**Medafighter: Invasion force**

**Medal type: Ex medal**

**Specialty: Widespread destruction**

**Signature: Redrum Murder**

**. . .**

**Gryphon: Extreme Tech**

**Medafighter: Invasion force**

**Medal type: Neo-Ex medal**

**Specialty: Absorbs medaforce**

**Signature: ?**

"That's a... that's a Gryphon!" Zuru said panicking.

"A what?" Leo asked, realising that they had dangerous enemies.

"Gryphon, an ADV type," Ikki said with a distant look in his eyes as he remembered fighting one.

It was a hideous looking creature, barely classing as a medabot. Its head was way too large for its red body and it had beady blue eyes. It looked like it had a large collar around its neck, like something you'd expect Count Dracula to wear. It had two large guns for hands. It appeared almost completely lifeless.

"Yo Ikki, what can it do?" Metabee asked with wide eyes. "I can't remember him! Just that it shut me down! I don't know what to do or how to fight it!"

"Calm down Metabee..."

"What do you mean calm down?!" Windstorm screamed interrupting. "That thing's an ADV type! That doesn't stand for advanced type, it stands for Arch-Devil! That thing has the strength of Blackram, Belzelga, _and _Redrun! We can't win against it!"

"Well we have to try!" Ikki said with determination lighting up in his eyes. "Metabee, demolition mode! Windstorm, Shadow sword"

Metabee's demolition parts transported, now nearly falling apart from excessive use. Metabee began morphing while Windstorm shot towards the Gryphon, visibly trembling. The two Redruns stepped in the way, smashing her back towards Ikki's feet.

"Tyrellbeetle, action mode, Masterbeetle combo!"

"Arc-Dash, action mode, Masterbeetle combo!"

The two medabots morphed together, forming the tank like Masterbeetle form.

"**Leave this one to me!" **Masterbeetle screamed as he charged at the Redruns. Both Redruns jumped out of the way, leaving Masterbeetle to charge at Gryphon. Gryphon brought up one of its guns and aimed at Masterbeetle. A yellow haze seemed to flow out of the guns, filling the entire room, stopping Masterbeetle in its tracks.

**All medabot weapons are offline.**

While Masterbeetle was still recovering, Gryphon charged at it, smashing it backwards into a wall, separating the two medabots. While they were both getting up, the Redruns charged forward, smashing their faces in. Tyrellbeetle's medal flung out of its back as it shut down.

"Redrun, show those phonies how it's done!" Banjo screamed into his medawatch. His Redrun grabbed both enemy Redruns by the arms and swung them around, tossing them back at Gryphon. Gryphon knocked them both aside as if they were nothing.

"Metabee, now! Medablast!" Metabee's canons reached full power just then.

"Kiss your bot goodbye! **Medablast!**" A massive blue energy ball rocketed towards Gryphon. Gryphon put his head down in front of him. The blast smashed into his head as the entire field flashed with bright white light from the explosion.

**2% damage. Not very effective.**

Gryphon dashed out of the cloud of rising smoke in a tank-like form, smashing into the weakened Metabee. Metabee rolled over backwards on the ground, smashing into Windstorm who was just recovering.

"Saikachis, use the Prominence! Blackbeetle, seeker missile barrage!" Leo screamed as he started losing hope. Both his medabots charged up their weapons to full power. Just then, the two Redruns jumped back up again, giving both Blackbeetle and Saikachis backhand slaps.

"Come on, come on, hurry up and recharge..." Zuru said to himself staring into his medawatch.

**Repair complete. All of Rok's medaparts at 87%. Ready for action.**

"Yes! Transport medabot!" A blue lightning ball materialised in the air, dropping off the scratched form of Roks. Otherwise, he was ok.

"Thank you for giving me another chance master," Roks said as his medal was reinserted.

"Roks, demolition mode!"

Roks transformed into his hovercraft form and aimed his head antennae at Gryphon.

"Prepare yourself! **Medablast!" **A blue boomerang looking energy blast spun towards the two Redruns. Both Redruns put up their arms to block the attack. The room was engulfed by another bright white light. As soon as the dust cleared and everyone regained their site, they saw both Redruns getting up off the floor with minimal damage.

**15% damage. Not very effective.**

"No way..." Zuru looked at the three incoming medabots.

"**Resistance is futile," **the Gryphon said. **"Your loss is inevitable. The Tochikan child is necessary for our plans. You cannot save her, you humans who have destroyed her entire race."**

"What are you talking about?" Leo said enraged. "What's a Tochikan anyway? And what do you mean destroyed an entire race?"

"**Foolish humans. You do not deserve to be graced by the presence of our colleagues. We will get vengeance for the defeat of the five immortals."**

"Five im... wait a second, they attacked us!" Koji screamed. "Spill it, why are you guys attacking us?"

"That's a question I can answer..."

Everyone looked to their left to see a short figure and a KWG type medabot walking towards them.

"Wait a second... I know you!" Ikki screamed in recognition. "You're that creepy blue haired kid with the Zorin! No way!"

The kid's shaggy hair was covering his eyes again. He smiled, although it was barely readable as anything but a tiny smirk.

"Yes. It appears we meet again, Ikki Tenryou. You finally brought Koji Karakuchi with you. The main event has finally started."

"Don't ignore me!" Ikki yelled back annoyed. Ignoring Ikki, he continued.

"Well then, you've gotten too far now. You deserve an explanation for everything. Let me enlighten you... Sit down for this."

The Gryphon let out the orange haze again, knocking everyone to the floor from some unknown pressure. "It's so sad the boss wasn't here. He so badly wanted to give you this speech. Medabots used to live on the land freely. You know that already. They were once a proud civilisation known as the Medarolli people. They evolved to survive in an ever changing Universe. Sadly, they only evolved through violent means, forging ever more powerful armour and weaponry until they were more machine than medarolli. The warriors of these species are now known as medabots. Much like the Vikings, they took pride in battle to become the strongest of them all. Disputes were always settled with violence. This behaviour split them into five major factions. The Kabuto and Kuwagata. The Beetle medals were born from the remnants of their kingdoms, and many others from smaller clans. These clans conquered, again and again, until they destroyed themselves. It's a tragic story, but inevitable. Medarolli were poorly adapted to their surrounding. Humans are far better adapted, but lack the necessary skills to fully evolve. However, there was a race far more powerful than even the Medabots.

"Before all of that, there was something far bigger than all of us. So big that the effects from them are still felt today, all over the galaxy, all over the Universe. They had the power to control the medaforce just by playing games. The medaforce was merely a starting tool for their youngsters. They had the power to bend whatever they please to their will. They had the closest thing you can get to creating entire lives, almost god-like abilities. They could control all life of any form, and bend its power, multiplying it to limitless amounts of energy. Whatever you may call it, they had it. Meda-energy, Reiatsu, Chi, Chakra, data, kinetic energy, Spiral energy, magic, whatever you may choose to call it, they used it. They controlled all life. They were, the Tochikans.

"When the Tochikans were existent, they were said to have lived alongside other creatures of some sort. Nobody knows whether they created the monsters themselves, or whether an 'other' power made them, or if they simply came to be. But for one thing, these monsters lived alongside the Tochikans like we live alongside medabots. The name for those monsters has long since been lost in time, but we can refer to them as 'monsters'. The Tochikans and monsters were the start of everything on earth. The Tochikans started everything, never becoming truly advanced, but always being far more adapted, far more powerful, and far more intelligent. If they were still around in mass numbers today, they would be the rulers of the known Universe. There is so much I could say about them, but you would be stuck here for years. The monsters were also something else entirely. But something happened... The entire race, all disappeared. The power which they had trained over the millennia, perfecting to the pinnacle of brilliance, all of it was gone. From what we have left, it looks like the Tochikan's own power had destroyed them. Whatever happened, it was enough to destroy their civilisation, but not their race. The Tochikans split up all over the earth, possibly across the whole galaxy if they had evolved enough to reach space travel. They evolved into races of all kinds, humans among them, specialising certain skills, but losing others. The monsters also evolved, they evolved into animals, and also into medarolli."

"Wait, the medarolli people, were degenerates of the Tochikan's pets?" Metabee asked unbelieving as he failed to grasp what kind of power they had.

"Not exactly pets, but yes. That shows how strong the Tochikans were. The monsters never failed to adapt, always taking a new form to suit the environment they were on, whether it was a dangerous wilderness for animals, or a utopia for medabots. Tochikans also adapted, although unsuccessfully, making the humans we know today. If somebody could grasp that kind of power, the opportunities they would have would be limitless!"

"And you want that power?" Ikki asked.

"Not me. I don't care for the power of our past ancestors that we so carelessly lost. But what I want, is the revival of the Tochikan race. The same Tochikans that were destroyed so long ago, not by their inability to handle their own power, but from the foolishness of the original human ancestors!"

"What?"

"Humans! They were around with Tochikans as well! Tochikans adapted to their surroundings, only mimicking humans! That's what makes geniuses and the gifted and talented, Tochikan blood! But that's not the point here. Tochikans had complete control over the power of life, humans didn't. Humans ruined everything!"

"What are you talking about!? What does this have to do with attacking Japan?" Ginkai screamed.

"Ah yes... You need an explanation about that don't you? Let me tell you something. Tochikans all adapted to mimic humans, but the strongest of them all managed to survive, and the same with the strongest of the monsters. The surviving Tochikans still exist today, but don't even realise their potential. The surviving monsters have all hidden away instead. Dragons are all in hiding, or died out with the dinosaurs. Phoenixes are nowhere to be seen, Sirens, mermaids and Undines are all deep underwater. Krakens are unheard of nowadays. All of these are silenced. That's where we come in. We work together in order to bring together an array of Tochikans and monsters with high amounts of their original power. Rare medals of certain kinds also count. We simply wish to revive our race."

"So you blow us up while doing it?"

"Yes. In order to pay for your past sins, you will pay it in your blood."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, but the boss will not let me tell you any further than that. But I can still tell you about my visit. I was sent down to find Tochikans. Many Tochikans are medafighters, as monster battles are in their blood. I was also looking for surviving Pandora medals. The medals of those medabots with monster DNA. Hearing about Koji and Hikaru, I arrived to find them, hoping for either Tochikans or Pandora medals. Sadly, none of them were what I needed. Not even the third rate Ikki Tenryou. So you can imagine how surprised we were when we discovered that a skull had returned with a Tochikan girl inside it. Her name was Samantha, wasn't it?"

"_Samantha?!" _everyone yelled at once, seeing her hanging loosely from the ring.

"You seem so shocked. Have you no faith in your comrades and their skills? No matter. She will become a valuable asset as the last purebred Tochikan in existence, or at least that we've met yet. I pitied you enough to let you know that you have a very special friend. Now, your deaths."

The child walked off while pressing a button on his medawatch. A numerous amount of blue lights appeared, revealing an army of Belzelgas and Blackrams. Backing up Gryphon, they all charged at once.

"We're toast..." Zuru said to himself, shutting his eyes.

"Chanbara Sword!"

A line of Belzelgas all exploded as a purple flash streaked past them. One Belzelga continued on, regardless of its destroyed arm. It launched its fist towards the wounded Roks.

A dull thud shook the arena.

There, standing in front of Roks, blocking the fist with his left hand, was a cloaked KWG type very similar to Zorin. It pushed back the Belzelga, smashing it twenty feet backwards through a wall. The KWG type looked back at Roks.

"So you're my brother... Please take care of yourself. I have too little family already for you to leave me before we have met."

"Br...brother?"

"Yes. Your medal was cloned exactly from my rare medal as a first medal. That makes us brothers."

Data clicked on the all too familiar medabot.

**Rokusho: Hushi's workshop**

**Medafighter: Dr Hushi**

**Specialty: Grappling attacks**

**Medal type: Kuwagata**

**Signature: Chanbara sword**

"Rokusho!" Metabee screamed. "How did you get back from space?"

"With him,"

The remaining Belzelga force all blew to pieces from Robo-Emperor style missiles. A Robo-Emperor burst through a wall, howling in rage. A Zorin and Bayonet rolled in after him, trying to look like some kind of super spies.

"Bayonet, did you make it?" The Zorin said.

"All in one piece baby!" The Bayonet replied. "Aint never felt this good!"

"Stop making so much noise you two," an elderly voice said from behind them. An old eccentric looking man with a bizarre helmet with light bulbs stepped out of the hole. "Don't act like I, Dr Meda-evil doesn't raise you!"

"Sorry I got carried away boss," the Robo-Emperor said in a deep tone.

"Dr Meda-evil?" Everyone but Leo screamed in complete shock.

"That's the nut job who tried causing another ten days of darkness isn't it?" Ginkai asked.

"And the greatest mind that ever lived!" He said, too proud of his infamousness. "It looks like I have to teach them a lesson about the beauty of medabots! Using emotionless Kilobots... Only weaklings do that and I'm far too powerful to be classed against the likes of them!"

"Let's go and teach them a lesson boss!" the Zorin exclaimed cheerily.

"Put the slam down on these suckas!" Bayonet added with just as much enthusiasm.

"Yeah, yeah, blow stuff up!" Robo-Emperor screamed as well, blasting missiles everywhere.

"Robo-Emperor, behave yourself!" Dr Armond said.

"Taking out city blocks, yet they just throwing rocks!" Bayonet sung with some terrible rapping skills.

"We the bots that can do it all, since... uh... fall?" Zorin added with even worse skills.

"Worrrrd..." The Robo-Emperor said holding an old stereo over his shoulders and wearing black glasses and a New York cap. All three medabots suddenly appeared dressed as hip-hop 'gangstas'. The blue haired kid stopped to stare at Dr Armond.

"What can four pitiful medabots and an old man do to kilobots?"

All three medabots froze, suddenly adopting a deathly serious tone without their outfits.

"He doesn't know us, does he boss?" Zorin said in a voice dripping with malice.

"Or what we can do, right?" Bayonet added with a hint of rage.

"I hate... ignorance..." the Robo-Emperor seemed to almost be snarling. Everyone's medawatches tried in futility to get data before they finally smashed from a power overload.

"It appears this boy is no good at being evil... Boys, medaforce trinity!"

The whole room started shaking, as if from an earthquake. The Zorin brought his sword back behind him in the classic pose that Rokusho often used. Bayonet focused an energy ball between his hands, similar to how Roks and Arc-Dash would have done. The Robo-Emperor seemed to tense his muscles.

"**Me..."**

"**Da..."**

"**Force!" **All three of them shot their medaforce attacks at Gryphon and the Redruns.

"Useless, Gryphon absorbs medaforce..."

A swirling black hole opened in the air as all three medaforces were sucked into the hole, draining into it.

"Keep pushing boys! He can't hold out against three spirits!" Dr Armond explained. "Ikki, transform your elemental's parts into a harpy! It's the only way!"

"What?"

"Gryphon's technology isn't as fancy as you thought! It was made already and Windsail can use it! The supersonic waves that harpy medabots send out can rip apart and reconstruct certain waves of energy, including the medaforce!"

"Ok, Windstorm, transform all medaparts until you reach a Harpy!"

Windstorm picked herself up off the floor as all of her parts started to morph. They all stopped with her arms transformed into large black wings and her head changed to a black head with 'feathers' on it. "Do it now!" Windstorm let out an earth splitting scream, the sound waves actually becoming visible through the air. Bolts started popping out of the wall, firing like bullets at everybody. The blackhole looked like it was wobbling as it started losing its power.

"What's going on? Gryphon, respond!"

The blackhole shattered, seemingly ripping itself apart. Both Zorin, and Bayonet's blasts shot through whatever was left of it, on their way to the enemy. Robo-Emperor wasn't shooting anything; instead an earthquake was spreading through the floor with cracks splitting all around the floor. Dr Armond's medawatch was still alive and was reporting the damage being done.

**Bayonet: Medaforce type 1, Ultra Shot active**

**Zorin: Medaforce type 2, Side bolt active**

**Robo-Emperor: Medaforce type 1, Gravity form active**

The three enemy medabots all covered their faces in terror before it hit them, smashing straight through them like a freight train.

"It's still useless! Even if it did hit, Kilobots don't feel pain from medaforce..."

∞**% damage dealt. No data left to collect. Error. Damage dealt is unreadable. ∞% damage dealt. System overload. Functions vaporised.**

Sections of the roof started falling apart from the attacks. The wave of energy carried on moving through what little was left of the kilobots, breaking through layers of concrete walls and out into the open air. From the outside, at least half of the saucer was seen exploding as a rising wave of meda-energy the size of ten football stadiums flew up into the air, slowly burning themselves up.

"Meda-evil, you've overdone it!" Rokusho screamed, moving at almost ninja like speeds to push everyone out of the rapidly collapsing room. DC and Sakura ran in just then.

"What did you guys do?!" DC screamed with a giant Mega-Emperor following just behind him, apparently enraged.

"That's what I wanna ask you!" Koji screamed, as him and Sumilidon both seemingly teleported out of the area. Arc-Dash blasted the Mega-Emperor with a full power boost of the appendix, or Prominence. Leo ran out of the collapsing room, turning one last time to look at Ikki and Metabee who seemed to be running towards the centre of it.

"Ikki, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Getting Samantha!" Ikki screamed back down at him before running towards the ring. Leo almost cursed seeing him sprinting off, getting pelted by small pieces of concrete and steel. DC popped up next to Leo.

"Ah yeah, he's got energy," he said. "I bet you're remembering back in the day when you could act that foolish."

"Yeah, and that got me into one too many fights. Why doesn't he just send Windstorm to fly over and get her?"

"Because that will put her in danger. I think this kid is the kinda guy who'll put others before himself, unless it comes to robattles."

"And if he dies?"

"He won't die."

"How do you know? You have even less experience then me!"

"I just know. Ikki is strong because, he can fight for the sake of living, live for the sake of fighting, and do both, for the sake of protecting his treasure, all that's important to him, his nakama! Spyke told me this. He said it was what kept him moving when he wanted to give up. That even though he was weak, he would still live for himself, and then fight for his friends. That he could do both might sound simple, but it is something very few people can do. You're either a fighter or a pacifist. Not both."

"Wait, what?"

"I think you know what I'm talking about. Either way, I'm not letting him have all the fun! Chrome,"

Chrotojil,'s legs morphed away, replaced by a pair of red legs with thrusters on them. DC grabbed strapped Chrome to his back like a jetpack and just like that, they shot off. Leo just stared at them go.

"Kids... way too much energy..."

Ikki tripped over a protruding piece of metal. He looked up panicked to see a massive block dropping down on him.

"Aw man, not here..."

Ikki shut his eyes, preparing for his death. A dull clunk spread through the air. Ikki opened his eyes to see Metabee holding up the massive chunk of steel.

"Keep going Ikki, you've got a job to do, as my medafighter, and a hero!"

Windstorm flew through the air, slicing up bits of falling rocks that were going to block the path.

"Keep going boss, and get us all outta here too!"

Ikki picked himself up off of the ground and sprinted on to the ring in the centre were Samantha was. Suddenly, the floor he was walking on sunk into the ground, dropping him. Ikki scrambled wildly around as he fell through the air. He smashed on the ground again, but on the floor below him. He looked down at the golden floor he was on. He caught his breath and froze completely.

_This whole room... was a giant medal!?_

A giant medal was on the ground, at least twenty metres wide. _So then, the skulls that were flying around, were the ship's medaforce? This ship is a giant medabot?!_

Ikki looked up trying to shake away the thought. He looked up at the ring which was now ten metres above him.

"I'll never climb up in time like this..."

"Don't say never, you fool!" Ikki followed the voice to see DC flying down with Chrome. DC grabbed Ikki's arms and shot lifted him high up to the ring.

"DC, you made it!"

"Only just. My Mega-Emperor extermination method from before doesn't work on these guys. So I can't take them out the way I did when we first met. But that's another story. Do what you've gotta do to save Samantha!"

"So why didn't you do it when you were closer?"

"Cause a rock hit Chrome's legs, busting the thrusters to make me fall."

"We're flying with no thrusters?!"

"Yeah! Listen Ikki, If you give up here, you've lost already. **"****Go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb!" that's what you've gotta do! Fly!**"

Without a moment's hesitation, DC flung Ikki as hard as he could into the ring, mainly relying on the boost from Chrome to do it. Ikki let out a scream as the whole world looked like it was spinning around him. Ikki looked down at Chrome and DC briefly who were spinning wildly out of control. Ikki tried regaining his balance as he positioned himself to aim at Samantha. Samantha looked up from her shackles to see Ikki flying towards her.

"Ikki?"

"Hold on!" The shackles on Samantha broke apart from four quick bullets from none other than Metabee. Flying through the air. Reaching. Screaming. Grabbing. Hoping. Surviving. Electricity. Fire. A bright blue light. Never gonna lose. Not yet, not now...

. . .

The Select Corps were outside the streets, cleaning up the last of the invasion force. Jyouzo Tenryou looked at the ruined remains of the saucer. It was just a crashed hunk of metal now, barely recognizable from its former grandeur. Jyouzo looked across at the small group of civilians they had found, kicking a trashed Robo-Empress that was surrounded by two KWG medabots and at least twenty fighter jets. A whole force of tanks were also upturned all around. Scraps of dented Select Corps armor were also littering the ground.

_As stupid as that was, I'll admit those guys have guts. Challenging a whole army like that. And it looks like they've done better than us at least. No casualties yet, but they still have to find three others plus their medabots. Who did they say they were, DC? And Leo. And Ikki... I hope he made it. It's great that there were so few civilian casualties from our evacuations, but I still can't stand not knowing if Ikki's alright. He'd been fighting the whole day until nine in the evening, and he still hasn't been found at five in the morning..._

Miss Nae was busy repairing the damaged medabots inside a tent set up by the Select Corps. Everybody else was outside waiting for them to return. Akkia was staring at the saucer, hoping to see some movement at all.

"Darn it Ikki, hurry up and get back. I've just met up with you again and already you're gone. Come back already..."

Erika was just as impatient.

"You promised not to die Ikki... so please don't die!"

A chunk of metal shifted slightly. Everybody held their breath, hoping to see some glimmer of life. The steel chunk shifted. It collapsed as Leo popped out from under it to breath. Underneath him, sheltered by his own body where his medabots. Everyone ran over to him, including some Select Corps members to cheer. Leo pushed them all away to get a little space.

"Hey, is there a mechanic? These two guys don't look so good. And a doctor would also be helpful... Ow... Hey, what happened to Space Medafighter X?"

"He ran away as soon as the Select Corps arrived," Miss Nae said, remembering him complaining about an aching back. "But more importantly, did you see the other two?"

"No. Last time I saw Ikki it looked like he was... flying... and DC looked like he was about to crash into a wall, but I haven't seen them. Sorry."

"It's ok. You tried your best..."

"No it's not ok!" Metabee screamed. "I can't find my medafighter! When I see him, I'll beat the daylights outta him myself for taking so long!"

"Chill out tin-can, he's trying his best..."

"Don't care!"

"Hey look over there!" Spyke exclaimed. "I think I see something moving!" Everybody turned to face where Spyke was pointing. There in the distance, with the sunrise to their backs, were a boy and a girl, looking like they were supporting eachother. Both of them looked completely wiped out with sunken eyes and heavy eye bags. Ikki looked up with a small half smile, and Samantha barely looked conscious at all.

"**Ikki!" **Metabee screamed in joy.

"Please, I wasn't going down there. Not until I become the strongest medafighter in the world."

Another chunk of metal lifted, revealing a dark skinned arm stretching out of the ground. The arm grasped an outstretched metal bar and pulled the rest of the body out, sending down cascading piles of junk. DC pulled himself and Chrome out of the ground, as if out from a grave. He gave a far too bright smile.

"I'm back from the dead 'cause they couldn't find my killer/

Now I'm jumping out of graves like Michael Jackson in Thriller!"

"Dude, you made it!" Rintarou

Yeah baby, I'm too much of a ninja to die like that!"

"You got close though..." Chrome said weakly.

"Hey, take your paralysis like a bot and shut it. You won't be moving for a while after that battle. Hey Ikki! You made it! I told you to break through the impossible! And it looks like you got yourself a girlfriend too."

Ikki and Samantha both looked at DC questioningly before noticing that they were holding hands the whole time. They both flung away from each other in alarm, both of them with heavy blushes.

"No I didn't!"

"No he didn't!" They both screamed at once.

"Wow, you even speak like the same person and everything..."

Two large bumps on DC's head later, Samantha started walking away without a word.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ikki asked. Samantha looked back behind her with tears in her eyes.

"Sorry, I've had more than enough for now. I'm going back home. Losing Peppercat is too much already." She walked off into the crowd. Everybody separated, giving her space to walk. Samantha walked past, not speaking another word. The battle was over, but at what cost?

**This, !**

**It's done. This last chapter killed my fingers. This arc is done. Now I can shorten my chapters again... If anyone doesn't like that, tough. Each chap is only ever meant to be 4000 words. Well, now that's over, one more thing to say before my burning Spirit is temporarily extinguished. In chapter 7, Spyke is about to say why he thinks Ikki is so strong. In this chapter, DC finally says why. You may be wondering why it took seven more chapters to tell you. I shall be brutally honest why it took so long. While writing chapter 7, I was thinking very hard as to where Ikki's strength came from. Honestly, it's a lot of stuff. So I compressed it into a short phrase and thought to myself, 'I'm a ninja for coming up with that one! Yeah!' that phrase was, '****he can fight for the sake of living, live for the sake of fighting, and do both, for the sake of protecting his nakama!" something similar, though more awesome. Sadly, I didn't write it down, and the next day or week when I started typing again, I forgot it. There was no way I was going to explain it all so I decided to include it later when it came back to me, Which was now. I'm fine with suspense, but even I know that at that level, it becomes frustrating, infuriating even. Either way, I wonder how Ikki survived? Hmmmm... I'll leave you guys to think on that one and maybe if I feel nice, I'll tell you. Either way, there shall be very interesting developments in the future. Look out for them!**

**Thanks for reading; it means a lot to me. It's been a pleasure, the Real Deal, **_**out.**_

**. . .**

∞**% damage. Haha! I love that one! Infinity percent damage, that's awesome!**


	15. Back to the past (robattle time!)

**Break through the impossible and kick reason to the curb! We're picking up the pieces of past lives. Read it and weep… NOT! It's back to epicness yet again! That should be a word… epicness… or cooltastic… … No, that sounded weird. How about, Killtastic? Ok I'll stop now.**

**This _IS _the _REAL DEAL _Presents:**

**This is _(none other than,)_ S P I R I T!**

**Chapter 15: It's robattle time!**

Five whole days had past. After all the weeping, and the worried sick stuff from anxious mothers, everybody had gone through extensive checks at the hospitals. The attack seemed too strange. There was no particular pattern to the attacks, other than that it targeted schools, the city centre, and a few random buildings. Plus of course all the roads connecting the areas. And the sewer system under the roads seemed completely destroyed from squads of sea type medabots emerging from it. Hospitals, major firms, homes, they all seemed intact. Only Koji and Ikki's houses were attacked. They couldn't get past the security systems in Koji's house, and for some not-so-unknown reason, large numbers of Select Corps were guarding Ikki's neighbourhood. For five whole days, the Select Corps were roaming the streets, searching for stragglers. The whole incident had become a worldwide pandemic as numerous governments tried to find out which country had thrown out such a terrorist attack, and where their weapons came from. Apparently, no country had plans for flying saucers of that design, and all the other saucers were all fleeing Japan, with military units close in pursuit. Miss Nae had been giving constant reports to authorities as to what exactly happened on the ship and the whole team were regarded almost as heroes to the few who had seen them. The whole report was of course covered up however, stating the Select Corps had handled the situation. To Ikki Tenryou, all of that didn't matter. All that he cared about was getting back into robattles as soon as school could resume.

Ikki screwed in the last bolt, making last adjustments to Windstorm's armour. With an audible sigh of relief, he inserted Windstorm's medal and slowly shut the hatch. He stopped to stare at the medal. He furrowed his brows as he noticed something odd about the medal.

"That's weird," he thought out loud. "I thought Windstorm's medal was a generic alien type?" the medal that was inside instead was a picture of a large monkey dancing.

"I'm over here genius!" Windstorm screamed from her medawatch. "What do you think you're doing with that medal?"

"Oh yeah, I got Queen Bee's medal after the fight!" Ikki quickly yanked the medal out before Queen Bee could reboot herself. Ikki stared at Queen Bee's medaparts resting in the corner. For a medabot, it really did look beautiful. But then again, Ikki wouldn't know. Maybe Metabee would…

"Don't even talk about it!" Metabee exclaimed. "That move she used was a dirty trick! That's all! It wouldn't work twice on me!"

"Well it's your fault for not being strong enough to resist her charm," Ikki said with a small grin.

"What charm?" Windstorm interjected. "I have more charm, _and _more class then that witch!"

"Sounds like someone is jealous…" Metabee sneered.

"I'm not jealous Metabee!"

"…Jealous that you couldn't touch _this!_"

"As soon as I get my body back…"

Ikki stared at the Monkey medal in wonder.

"This is the power of a master medabot… Queen…Bee… Hey guys! I have an idea! What if I activated Queen Bee again, but as my medabot?"

"No!" both Metabee and Windstorm screamed at once.

"Well we need to get stronger, and Queen Bee has just the strength we need! What if somebody stronger appears next time? Don't forget that she said we could do what we wanted with her if we survived. She was in my medawatch the whole time during that robattle; she has to have seen us win that last fight!"

"Excuse me, since when have evil, sadistic, murderous medabots been part of our friends list?"

"Come on Metabee, what if she's changed?"

"How does that work after only five days, of being a war prisoner?" Windstorm asked. "I don't care if she's a Saint, she's not getting anywhere _near _me!"

"Then we should at least find out what her poison is made of. Maybe if we stop by Dr Aki's lab, he'll make a vaccine for it? Or an antivirus, or whatever it would be for a medabot. Then the next time you fight something like her, you won't get affected."

"Alright…"

. . .

A lot of the streets still looked torn up and wrecked, with bits of the road being upturned. It was only some streets, easy to avoid, but when you passed them you could see the damage done. Parked cars that were abandoned were being towed out, crushed from numerous explosions. Ikki recognised a few places that they had destroyed themselves. Old stores and offices had smashed windows with the contents inside completely upturned and ruined. Destroyed medaparts lay strewn all over the floor, some of them beyond repair. Ignoring them, Ikki marched on to the end of the road, finally seeing signs of the city as it was before the attack.

"Metabee, why did they attack medaropolis?" Ikki asked offhandedly.

"To get Tochikans? And Pandora medals? I'm not sure what they are but they seem way too strong."

"Yeah, but why only here?"

"Just by chance. And they heard how much we rock! Take out the biggest threat first!"

"So why didn't they attack Europe and those places where they have stronger weapons? Or Kenya where Victor and Warbandit live? They are the biggest threats."

"Uhh... cause they see our potential!"

"And more importantly, they want to revive the Tochikan race. So why did they try to drain the energy out of Samantha, instead of recruiting her to their team?"

"Uhh... hey I don't know Ikki. I'm trying to think positively! Look, we saved the city! Maybe even the whole world! If the Tochikans are as tough as they seem, then what would happen if they came back? We stopped _it_ before _it _could happen!"

"So what about Samantha? She's a pure Tochikan. And so is her mom I guess. She might have different views on this. And if what that creepy kid said is true, then maybe the Tochikans should actually come back..."

"Sure, and they can kill us too and steal all our stuff. Ikki, you haven't been all there since that fight. You okay man?"

"Not really... I guess I still feel exhausted after all of that. I mean, that was big, huge. I had to use the special missiles I'd been saving for that Zorin. (Yeah, remember chapter one, "Over time Ikki had bought far more dangerous ammunition for Metabee's cannons" those missiles are obviously not safe for eleven year old children...) And even then, it made no difference. If I think back at it, if Dr Meda-evil hadn't arrived with Rokusho, we would have ended up even worse than the Select Corps."

"Yeah, the Select Corps didn't stand a chance! They were completely annihilated! They all flew in with their fighter jets, with their Air-Pteras, all of that, but they were just going BOOM! And, POW!"

"Not funny Metabee, a lot of them were seriously injured, or even worse. We got lucky that Space Medafighter X showed up at the last second."

"Don't forget Akkiana and Rokshi. They added some serious power to our group. I think they're my heroes now! Red Blaze... attack!"

"There was also Chrotojil too. He was super strong, but we kept on having to save him when he got hit too hard or used the Gun-metal barrage."

"His medal was damaged, what else could we do?"

"Then his medafighter..."

"Yikes. Almost as much energy as Rintarou! Was he really thinking when he tossed you that time?"

"I don't think so, but I'm glad he did. But the finishing touch was when Leo arrived with _two _medabots!"

"No way. Leo wasn't as strong as Space Medafighter X!"

"But he still had two medabots!"

"Yeah, both of them just cheap copies of the originals."

"Aw come on Metabee, you're not the only Saikachis in the world!"

"But I'm _one _of the only! And I was the only other Metabee! The downgraded Meta-bee doesn't count."

"You were only the only Metabee because your whole series was discontinued for a while. When it came back with Bayonet, they stopped producing you Because of all the glitches in your system. Do I need to remind you of the constant creaky parts? Or the occasional stiff right arm? Or maybe the..."

"Shut up! You're just jealous of me! Just cause you're a meda-failure who made his medabot lose his memories!"

"Why would I be jealous of a piece of junk like you?! It's not my fault you're too defective to remember anything!"

"Take that back!"

"Maybe if you take back your stupidity!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

Both of them ended up in a seemingly pointless fight, wildly thrashing out fists everywhere and firing randomly in every direction. Windstorm was floating peacefully by the side, ignoring them completely as she just enjoyed the peace and quiet for once. No cars, no robattles, nothing. Just silence. Apart from of course, Metabee and Ikki. It was almost too good to last. Windstorm corrected herself; it was too good to last.

"Stop! Thief! Somebody stop them!"

A series of ear-splitting explosion cracked through the air. All three of them looked to their left where the explosion came from. A large, seemingly important looking building stood on the side of the street, guarded by two other firms on either side. The white paint looked as fresh as if it was painted daily, with no stains or blemishes on its surface. All of the floors above the third storey were instead made out of glass instead of brick with a massive golden hexagon medal hanging above their heads with the words, 'medabot corporation'. Instead of a front door, there was a long corridor with security cameras on either side of the walls. Past every five metres, there was a half shut metal gate with large red and blue lights hung on the ceiling, serving as a warning to whoever dared to cross that they wouldn't cross two steps before all of the gates shut on them. Where security guards normally stood however, were just groaning men lying on the floor clutching their stomachs in pain. When Ikki looked back up at the cameras, he noticed all of them had cracked screens. Again, they heard a group of people screaming to stop somebody inside the building.

"Stop them! They have them!"

"Yo Ikki," Metabee began. "Somebody broke into the Medabot Corporation. In broad daylight. Does that sound normal to you?"

"Uh oh..."

A large section of the wall in the side of the corridor exploded outwards, churning out debris and chunks of metal. A red unitrix was tossed out along with the explosion, with large dents in its armour. Its eyes went dark as it shut down.

"Metabee, get ready!" Ikki screamed as he brought his left arm with both his medawatches up to his face.

"You got it Ikki!" he yelled bringing up his laser cannons.

"Windstorm..."

"Already on it," Windstorm said with rising levels of frustration as Sumilidon's old flexor sword materialised in her right arm.

A black blur shot out of the destroyed opening, gliding past the Unitrix with ease.

"Metabee, sub-machinegun!"

A hail storm of bullets hammered themselves at the black blur, but none of them hit as it dodged past them all, weaving through the debris as if it wasn't there. The blur leaped across the room, slinking past like a ghost as it rammed into Metabee. Metabee's eyes went wide in pain as he was flung twenty feet backwards, into a nearby street lamp. Windstorm flew after the blur holding her medaparts in front of her. The blur moved rapidly, swiftly extending a leg into Windstorm's chin, sending her sprawling back to Ikki.

"Windstorm, Shadow Sword! Metabee, Seeker missiles!"

Windstorm picked herself up off of the ground, readjusting her form before launching off of the ground into the air, spiralling through the sky before falling to try and smash her claws into the blur. A massive fist extended from the shadow, smashing into the Flexor sword medaparts. Windstorm got shot straight back into the air as her claws smashed into pieces, transforming her arm back to normal. Metabee sprung back up and sprinted towards where Windstorm was going to fall.

"I gotcha!" he exclaimed as he dived to grab her before she could fall to the ground. Windstorm instantly jumped out of Metabee's arms, obviously enraged at having to be saved. Metabee, ignoring Windstorm, got back up to face the lightning fast black medabot. "Kiss your bot goodbye!" he exclaimed as two seeker missiles rocketed to the blur. No matter how fast that medabot moved, it wouldn't escape a heat-seeking missile, which explodes on contact. Two explosions flashed through the air as the black blur flew out of the cloud of dust. The blur stopped moving momentarily as it recovered from the attack. Ikki's eyes widened as he recognized the design.

"Metabee, that's a Belzelga!"

"Like the ones we were fighting just last week?"

"More like the three the Rubberrobos had under their command when we were rescuing you."

"Can't remember..."

"That Belzelga is..."

A bright white light flashed through the air, knocking Metabee over. The white flash hopped through the air and stopped next to the Belzelga. A Whitesword was standing next to the Belzelga, his gleaming sword flashing. In his free hand, he was carrying a large sack with shiny golden medals pouring out of it.

"Whitesword, don't drop the rare medals!" an all too familiar voice screamed from the damaged building. Ikki turned back to face the medabot corporation. High up on possibly the fifth floor, two shadows stood tall with similar sacks filled with the same golden medals. The slighter shadow aimed what looked like a misshapen gun at a nearby building and fired. A long black cable shot out of it, attaching itself to the other building with ease. The bulkier figure attached some kind of device to the cord and zip lined across to the other building. The slighter figure followed suite, gliding after him. The two figures landed on the other building, the first figure landing clumsily while the second landed gracefully. Ikki stared up at the two who were up on the roof, unbelieving.

"You two are..."

"Yes!" the male yelled as he turned to face Ikki. He was dressed in a black vest with a grey, slightly green hunting jacket. The edges of the vest were frayed and shredded and the jacket had a red flower design on the back. He had khaki combat jeans and combat boots. A pair of black sunglasses rested on his forehead, unused. His hunting jacket had a grey medal with a red 'R' emblazoned on it. "We're the leaders of the new and improved Rubberrobo gang!" he exclaimed with an evil glint in his eyes. He brought his sunglasses over his eyes. "You have witnessed the return of Seaslug of the Rubberrobo gang!"

The female sharply whacked the back of his head, slightly annoyed.

"We're not gonna call ourselves that anymore, you know how ridiculous it sounds!" she scolded him.

"Yes dear..."

She was dressed in a similar outfit, but with black skinny jeans instead of khaki combat pants. Her vest wasn't frayed along the edges either and the red flower design on the back was replaced with a large Gothic R. She also had the R medal emblazoned on her chest.

"Wait a second... you're, Miss Caviar?" Metabee asked incredulous.

"That's right!" she said, bursting with pride. "Ever since my wedding to Seamore, we've been plotting world domination, with me under my new codename of Miss Starfish! But it wasn't easy. We couldn't bring the whole team back together like I was hoping we could, but I had a plan. It's really quite simple. We have to build up enough of a reputation to be noticed by the others. Not the petty thefts and plans of the old 'Rubberrobo gang'. The big time. Without the equipment or, expertise," she faced Seaslug as she said the last statement. "for it, it's been impossible, so we've been whiling away the months making money the good and honest way. By getting jobs."

"Hey, why don't you just stay working?" Windstorm asked as she began losing interest. "It's not like you'll succeed with the evil thing..."

"Silence!"

Everybody stayed deadly silent.

"We waited for the perfect opportunity to present itself. What better time than after a war? Not exactly a war, but the whole country is still preoccupied with it, and the city is defenceless. The medabot corporation was hit hard. A lot of the guards and the Select Corps stationed inside all left to fight. The defence this place is famed for now has an opening. We just had to time the attack right, like this! We go in broad daylight so that everybody knows how fearless we are, take all the rare medals, and get out. It's simple! Everybody will know how strong we are for raiding one of the most heavily guarded fortresses in the world without even breaking a sweat!"

"Question," Metabee said, raising his hand like a school child. "Why are you telling us this?"

"Because," Seaslug began. "Everybody knows that evil masterminds tell the general public how the heroes will be defeated! Although you brats barely count for heroes."

"Hey!"

"Shut it pipsqueak! It doesn't matter whether we're the Rubberrobo gang, or the new and improved, **Team Renegade! **You will still lose!"

"Hey, over here."

Seaslug felt a light tapping on his shoulder from behind him. He turned around, just to receive a quick fist straight to the face. Seaslug toppled over backwards, dropping the sack of medals. He grabbed his nose quickly to stop the bleeding.

"Who did that? Show yourse..."

A sharp kick between the legs quickly silenced him as a small figure darted past him and grabbed the sack. She pushed the sack off the edge of the building. Miss Starfish reached out to grab the sack, missing completely and almost falling off of the building. She turned to face the girl that had just attacked her husband.

"You! Who do you think you are?!" she screamed, fuming in rage.

"Me?" the girl asked. "I'm the boss of this place, Samantha of the Screws Gang!"

Immediately, she yanked the other sack from Miss Starfish's hands and tossed it over the edge to Ikki below as well. Before she could be caught, Samantha set off at a sprint to the next building, leaping over the gap separating them. Luckily the next building was lower than where she was standing, making it easier to jump to because there would be no way Samantha could cross it. The two Team Renegade forces quickly sprinted after her. Samantha sprinted, pumping her legs like pistons as she ran literally for her life. As she began to lose her breath, she looked behind her to see the two still hot on her heels. She dived off of the train of flats to the streets below and kept running. She turned to face forward again, just to slam into a hard, smooth surface. She stepped back, holding her nose to stop any bleeding just to see Belzelga and Whitesword.

"Oh snap..."

Whitesword brought up his sword and pointed it at Samantha. The two Renegades appeared behind her.

"Stop right there you little brat!" Seaslug exclaimed with a red face. "Now we'll teach you what it means to mess with team Renegade!"

Belzelga brought up his massive fist, ready to pummel Samantha, or at least threaten her.

"Metabee, now!"

Electricity crackled through the air and the sound of heavy machinery and footsteps. A large yellow bulk slammed into the two enemy medabots. They all rolled over across the pavement in a heap, smashing into a lamppost. As all three figures got up, the yellow one that was Metabee dropped an ejected missile onto them. Then, transforming into action mode while still wearing his demolition mode parts, he darted away from the explosion, though slightly slower than normal. Whitesword collapsed to the floor, functions ceased while Belzelga just stepped out of it enraged. Ikki and Windstorm arrived just then.

"Hey Samantha, what are you doing?" Ikki asked, genuinely worried. "I could have handled them myself and you don't even have a medabot. If we hadn't arrived just then, you could have..."

"Shut it Ikki, you sound just like my mom!" Samantha said scowling. "It's not like you would've done anything useful here... and I'm not as useless as you think. Unlike you, I didn't just charge into a building where you can hear people screaming. Don't be dumb! I called for backup before entering."

"Backup?"

"Not the others. Cops! Since that Select Corps girl was there, I could get her help in this. I called her and she got the cops together. I told them to just chill on standby. They should arrive right about... Now!"

Two canisters rolled under Belzelga. Belzelga looked down with his eyes stretching wide. Both canisters exploded under him, instead of bursting into flames they spurted out a white Styrofoam like substance, trapping Belzelga in it. A squadron of Air Pteras flew in, flying through the air dropping more of these canisters. The Renegade members both grabbed their medabots, avoiding the Styrofoam stuff as they ran.

"We'll get you next time!" they both screamed as they ran from the scene, leaving behind the medals that littered the floor. The Select Corps streamed in from all sides, with the fastest of them pursuing the crooks. Dr Aki jogged out of the Medabot Corporation, questioning what just happened. Miss Nae also exited from the building. Ikki stared down the street, unsure of where that came from.

"That's right, you better run!" Metabee shouted in fury. "Cause when Metabee gets mad, it's over for you!"

"Can it Metabee, I'm trying to sleep," Windstorm said as she began floating in mid-air, apparently sleeping. Ikki's medawatch even recorded Windstorm's medal hibernating. Weird...

Ikki looked through the growing crowd of cops. Among them, Samantha had disappeared.

. . .

"Yikes, what a day. And it hasn't even started!" Samantha said to herself as she walked through her neighbourhood. Compared to the city centre, her street was pristine. Samantha looked down at her feet, suddenly interested in her laces. She could feel... nothing. Today was empty. Yesterday was empty. Everything was empty. Even the encounter with the Rubberobos had stirred nothing inside her. Maybe that was why she charged in like that. There was no way she would have the guts to do that herself. Nothing.

A solitary teardrop fell down her cheek, dripping to the floor. Samantha tried rubbing the tears off, but just ended up smearing them all over her face.

"Need a hug?" a voice said next to her.

"Uh-huh," Samantha said. She looked where the voice was. Peppercat stood there, looking up at her expecting orders. Samantha let out a weak chuckle, almost a sob. "Thanks, but no thanks. I can't hug ghosts."

"But I'm still here boss."

"No, you're not."

"I don't understand boss..."

"I'm sorry... you just have to rest. No more robattles. It's ok..."

Peppercat looked up questioningly before dipping her head in understanding. A gust of wind blew through the park as Peppercat seemed to almost blow away with it.

"Then make sure, you protect the world now..." Peppercat whispered.

"What?"

"You heard me. Protect the world... ... ..."

Samantha gently grabbed Peppercat's bulky arm, as a last goodbye before she faded away into the wind, scattering as leaves blowing through the wind. Samantha held a remaining rust red leaf in her hand. She couldn't even tell if that was her imagination, or a real ghost. She didn't even care anymore as she released the leaf into the wind. She closed her eyes, letting the tears flow freely. Something inside her felt like it was released as well too. As if the ghost was telling her to move on. Let go of the past. There was nothing she could do anyway. She could feel a heavy weight sliding off of her shoulders, giving her breathing space. When Samantha opened her eyes again, she saw a lone medabot wandering through the streets. Samantha walked towards her, for it was a she.

"Hey, where's your medafighter?" she asked. The medabot looked up. She was a brown yellow and red cat-like medabot with a golden bell tied around its neck. Her head had a large pair of cat ears and a pair of blue eyes. Her tail had a pink ribbon tied to it. Her paint had a few scratches and there was dust in between cracks in her armour. The cat medabot blinked at Samantha before looking down at the ground with a sad expression in her eyes.

"Don't have one," she said. "Or at least not anymore. Don't have a home or anything. I'm pretty lucky that I'm still here in the first place."

"Well then, you're like me," Samantha said, not prying into her past life but understanding what she was going through. Samantha leaned against a street light as she thought of something to say. "No medafighter huh? I don't have a medabot anymore either. And I'm pretty lucky to still be alive right now."

"Hey, can I ask you something?" the cat medabot asked in her gentle voice. "What happened to the city centre? I've been deactivated for months now and I don't know what's going on."

"Months? You mean, you were shut down when the kilobots were first released, right?"

"Yeah. My medafighter replaced me. I don't even know why. I never lost matches. I always won, although my medafighter did have to play a little unfair..."

"So long as they won, right?"

"Do whatever it takes!"

Samantha chuckled to herself. It could have been her she was talking about with the way this person was being described.

"Hey, how are you up anyway?" Samantha asked. The cat type blinked twice.

"Well, it's not very cool how I was reactivated. My medafighter was up in her room listening to her music or whatever. At least that's what I was told. Either way, her little brother was wandering around the house and my medafighter wasn't there to stop him. Somehow, he opened the door to the basement and found me deactivated in a corner. He put my medal inside and woke me up. After asking him what happened and where I was, he explained everything to me. I felt so heartbroken that my medafighter would abandon me, that I jumped out of the window and ran. I don't think she even noticed me leave. From what her brother said, she was going to sell me soon."

Samantha looked at the ground, processing the information.

"Alright. I won't ask you who your medafighter was, nor will I tell you to go back to them. But I will tell you to stop by my house. I don't care if you say you wander alone or whatever or you don't trust humans. Only Rokusho can pull off that solitary hero thing. You're coming to my house and I'm fixing you up. You wouldn't want to shut down would you? After that, I'll find you someone who can take care of you. I'd do it myself but I don't think I can take care of a medabot right now."

"You'd fix me up?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course I would. But don't hang around too long like some kinda free loader. You look too much like my old medabot. I'd burst to tears after a while."

With that, the two set off towards Samantha's house, talking about their experiences along the way.

**Not the best chapter I've written but I need to do something to get into the swing of things. Either way, this is what's happening. This isn't Spirit... It's building Spirirt!**

**Mr Referee: Today's robattle, Ikki and Windstorm fend off the Renegade Robos, but gain no medaparts.**

**More medabots, more power.**


	16. Begin the Winter Festival!

**Wow, I've just disappeared off the face of the planet haven't I? It feels like generations since I last did this. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten any of you guys, I'm not stopping yet! I guess we've been missing these words for too long...**

**Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, medabots, dragons, pokemon, digimon, beyblades and random monsters of all kind, The Real Deal himself presents:**

_**THIIIIIISSSSSS *gasp* IIIIIIIISSSSSS *gasp* SPIIIRIIIT!**_

_**Oh yeah!**_

**Chapter 16: ****Begin the Winter Festival!**

"Ow! What are you trying to do to me?"

"Quit moving Metabee, I can't work on you properly!"

"Well don't be so rough okay? Metabee likes his medaparts."

"You do realize that this is your fault for refusing to have your medal removed, right?"

"You didn't have a spare tin-pet for me to go in, so it's your fault!"

Ikki let out a deep sigh.

_Metabee's finally got back his reluctance to have me touch his medal..._

Medaparts were strewn all over the floor of Ikki's bedroom with screwdrivers and drills lying with them. Metabee sat cross legged in the centre of the room with one of Cyandog's arms and a flexor sword arm part. His legs had panels open on them and his head cannons had been screwed off his head. Ikki wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand and took a look at what he'd done.

"Yo, Ikkster," Metabee began. "What are you even tuning me up for anyway?"

"Haven't I told you at least a million times? It's for the upcoming Winter Festival tourney!"

"Huh?"

"Geez, you really weren't listening were you? The Winter Festival happens every year round about Christmas time in Riverview, not really to celebrate anything in particular, but to bring together the community of Riverview and even Medaropolis. It's only been happening in the past few years but you've probably never noticed because there were no robattles going on. Well as a comeback of the World Robattle Championships, the World Robattle Organization organised a sort of mini tournament for robattlers to get back their ranking. It's happening all over the world during Christmas time to get everyone robattling again. The WRC will be in three years time now but it's better to get a head-start. But of course it's still part of the winter festival, and despite being made to keep our communities together, it just starts up serious rivalries between us and the Medaropolis guys like Koji and Karin."

Metabee grumbled and held out the flexor sword to be modified.

"Alright, just don't tell me I'm gonna fight with this claw on me! It feels like a lead weight."

Windstorm who was lying on the bed flashed her eyes open, transforming her right arm into another Flexor sword.

"Maybe to you, this thing is like a bunch of kitchen knives to me!"

"Well sorry I'm not a homicidal maniac or a serial killer."

"Aren't both of those the same thing?"

"Shut up!"

"Wow, you're lacking your usual energy and anger. Are you sick?"

Metabee stayed silent, flinching as Ikki poked his arm with a screwdriver. Ikki continued talking, ignoring them.

"Anyway, this is a comeback to the WRC so there'll be a lot of old time legends. People who are even stronger than Space Medafighter X! And of course all of the friends we made recently. Akiana, Leo and DC. They'll be monstrously strong when it comes down to it!"

"So? What about it? We'll always get through it!" Metabee shouted enthusiastically.

"I'm saying, with how we are now we might not win. We need to get way stronger. In terms of power, we didn't even match Queen Bee. What if someone else uses that same model so we have to battle one on one? The thing is, we're not strong enough for this. I know none of you guys agree with me, but we have to revive Queen Bee."

Both Metabee and Windstorm gasped in horror.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Windstorm exclaimed.

"Yo Ikkster, you wanna start a World War 3?" Metabee added. "That chick's a psycho! A sadistic freak! Do you really think she'll listen to you?"

"I dunno, she said we could do whatever we liked with her medal. So why not?"

Both medabots began shouting in rebellion until Ikki finally ejected Windstorm's medal just to shut her up. He took out the monkey medal from his pocket and stared at it intently.

"Maybe it's time to finally use you..."

. . .

The snow piled up high in the central park, some of it melting in the crater to form a medium sized pond. A few children could be seen running around hurling snowballs at each other. Two of them, a boy and a girl sat in the branches of a tree holding hands. An eighteen year old with two medabots at either side of him walked by in a large black jacket and woolly gloves. He looked around as if searching for somebody.

"Come on, where is she? She should have been here already," he said to himself.

"Leo, why are we here again?" the Saikachis asked. Leo just ignored him and looked around more. "Leo?"

"Hey, do you remember that event a few months back? Well I've been thinking, we're pretty strong, but Grandslam was something special. I don't think we could have handled him on our own. Or at least not without one of you getting shut down. So I'm thinking, maybe the Select Corps would have those parts lying around somewhere, maybe even the medal? I thought it would be cool if..."

"**NO!" **Blackbeetle screamed in protest, aiming her guns at Leo. "Alright, who are you and what have you done with Leo?"

"What?"

"Leo would never try and replace us. Tell us now!"

"Calm down! I'm not gonna replace you or anything! You guys are way too cool for that guy to replace you! I'm just gonna analyse his medaparts and see where that power came from! Then we can find out how to beat guys like that! Remember that Select Corps person who helped us? Sakura? Well, she promised that she'd get us into the medabot Corporation to check out those medaparts. Akkiana and Nae will also be there. But they're not showing up..."

"Heeeeeey guuuuys!"

Leo turned to the overexcited screams, worried about the safety of his eardrums. Rintarou and Kantaroth were running towards them, Rintarou waving energetically all the while. For some odd reason, he was still wearing shorts and a red shirt. Ginkai was walking next to him in a large woolly jumper with Arc-Dash behind him. Ikki and Metabee were also there along with Akkia and Aokshi. Trailing far behind was DC and Chrome, both in at least ten layers of jumpers, woolly coats, jerseys, and anything else warm. They both shuffled along shivering miserably. As soon as they all gathered, they all looked questioningly at DC.

"Dude, were you locked in a freezer or something?" Rintarou laughed.

"Shut up! Shut up, Shut up, Shut up, Shut up, Shut up!" he screamed back. "I'm not used to this kind of cold! Apart from on TV, I nearly never see snow, I'm from Africa! Particularly, Malawi. The cold is my worst enemy. Give me a never ending heat wave any day and I'll meet it with sweat pants and a cup of coffee, but the second there is snow I'll be in full hermit mode, in my room, Playstation 4, set, Xbox 720, set, (yes, I like the classics!) my laptop, the hard drive and a whole stash of anime to watch!"

"Whoa, calm down. I didn't mean to offend you or anything."

"Well too bad. I thought getting hit by a snowball would be fun when I first saw snow five years ago. Haha! Pneumonia sure is fun!"

Just then, a teenager around seventeen years old arrived with Miss Nae. Miss Nae's medabot, Honey, was following behind her, the elementals nowhere to be seen. An Air-Ptera was next to the teenager. The teenagers arm was in a sling and her leg had a large futuristic looking cast around it. A pair of flight goggles rested neatly on her forehead with a red bandanna underneath it. Her pink hair floated in the breeze airily. She was wearing an old flight jacket with a fluffy white wool collar, likely bought from somewhere like Sweden. A pair of gloves hid her hands.

"Sorry I'm late Leo," Sakura said apologetically. "I didn't actually think I'd be able to make it out."

"Still grounded?"

"My dad won't even let me leave my room! He sends me all of my meals and even converted my closet into a bathroom! The only time I've been allowed to leave is for school."

"Wait, you were grounded?" Ikki asked surprised.

"Yeah. When the city was under attack I snuck into the Select Corps hideout and pretended to be a junior cadet. I stole a fighter jet and joined in the squad. I'm not yet a high enough rank to participate in those kinds of missions and I don't even have a driver's license so..."

"So how were you flying a plane?" DC asked, not sure how to react.

"It's natural to me. My dad taught me everything about planes since I was a kid so it was easy. By the time they discovered me it was already too far into the battle to send me back so I kept fighting. But my dad had a cow when I came back! If he wasn't so worried about me in the first place he would've murdered me right there on the spot! Long story short, I've been grounded since. I snuck out."

"Yeah, yeah that's great but can we go now?"

Suddenly, Windstorm materialised from thin air, her head looking like a chameleon with large purple eyes. They followed Leo and Sakura to the Medabot Corporation, the younger ones making sure not to get too close to Leo.

. . .

"Alright, so everyone here has signed up for the Winter tourney right?" Akkia asked as soon as they were inside. Everyone nodded their heads. "Ok guys, we're all from Riverview, and those of us who aren't (DC, Leo) still don't like losing right? Then here's the deal. There's no way we're gonna lose to some rich guys from the city, and we can't let them take the money either now can we? And then comes the most important point, getting back all of our rankings for the upcoming WRC. Those of us who get it good now might even compete in the next tournament."

"Oh yeah! This time, M-dubs is winning for sure if I can win!" DC yelled above Akkia. Everyone turned to him questioningly. "Uh... M-dub, MW, Malawi. You see, a kinda abbreviation."

"Why weren't you in the tournament last time anyway?" Ginkai asked. "I've seen you robattle and it's something scary. You should have been there."

"I didn't qualify," DC answered almost under his breath. He looked down with a dark expression on his face, his eyes partially covered by a shadow. "I'm only the fifth strongest in my country. Even if Chrome's medal wasn't defective I'd probably only be fourth. And even then, my team got beaten in the first round against Victor."

"Oh..."

After about half a second, his expression suddenly brightened again.

"But that doesn't matter! Victor's a jerk and I still need to get my rematch with him. I challenged him once you know?"

"Did you win?" Ikki asked suddenly interested.

"Why should I tell you that? You can face me and find out for yourself!"

"Hey guys, still in the building, remember?" Leo cut in. "We're not here to spar with each other; we're here to get new medaparts."

"And we can't buy them becaaaauuussee..." Rintarou asked, drawing on the word far longer than necessary.

"Because, I found out that Grandslam's medaparts are missing," Sakura answered. "The reason we've even met up is because of that. Grandslam's medaparts have disappeared and so have Twin-Scissor's legs. There wasn't much left of Grandslam though and Robo-Empress was damaged beyond any repair. But the thing is they weren't stolen, they were bought."

"Bought?" everyone asked at once. Sakura nodded her head.

"Someone by the name of 'Karakuchi' purchased Twin-Scissor's legs, and Extreme Tech purchased Grandslam."

"Zuru and Koji!" Ikki screamed.

"Exactly. We're not going to win if they have those medaparts so we might as well get some new medaparts too. I practically saved this place from getting blown to smithereens so I can get a discount."

"And don't forget that I'm related to Dr. Aki," Nae added. "And I've been working on something special for all of you. Check it out..."

Everyone walked off through the hallways to check out the latest medabots, but Ikki stayed behind, lingering in the hallways.

"Yo Ikki, are you okay?" Metabee asked worried while Windstorm was floating in mid-air by his head with her visors turned off.

"Yeah I'm fine, or at least I think I am. It's just that, everything that happened, in August, it feels like a dream now, almost like none of it existed..."

"So ignore it and let's go! I'm gonna rust if I stay put for so long!"

"No, the thing is, everybody's ignoring it like it _wasn't _such a big deal, like it never happened."

"That's because it wasn't fun, now we need to go!"

"But think Metabee, first of all, we still don't really know what those guys were up to, we only saw four humans on that whole ship and none of them were caught. The kid with the Zorin disappeared, and the other three didn't even seem like bad guys. If what Spyke said was true, they were probably being paid to do that stuff. We understand that there was an ancient race but we still don't understand what that has to do with us. We know they don't like humans and probably want us gone, but we don't know why that's the case, although it's probably got to do with the Tochikans losing their powers. And then comes the final question of Samantha. How is she a completely pure-blood Tochikan with thousands of humans to one or two Tochikans? What kind of hidden power does she have? Will she turn into somebody like that blue-haired kid, because I think he's a Tochikan, he's not normal. And most importantly, how would she be feeling about losing Peppercat? We can all get on with our daily lives but she can't. We don't even know what happened to her! The Screw's gang practically disappeared and the only time I've seen her is at school. Something weird is going on."

Metabee sat down in a nearby chair in a mock thinking pose for a solid ten seconds.

"Ikki if I knew the answers to this stuff, I'd be a genius. No lie, I'd be Einstein and a bucket of fried chicken. These things can't be answered Ikki so don't worry about it! Ok, worry about what you can fix. There's nothing we can do about the Tochikans. The Select Corps, and the FBI, MI6, all those guys are on it. We can just relax for now. If I were you, I'd at least check up on Samantha. That's something you can sort."

Just then Leo turned back.

"Hey Ikki! Don't forget, the preliminaries start tomorrow."

"To...tomorrow?!"

. . .

"Ladies and gentlemen, medabots and medababes, we present to you the qualifier round of the winter festival medabot comeback championships!"

A man with dark hair in his early twenties blared out his announcement like an alarm through a dented yellow bullhorn. The crowd of fifty people cheered enthusiastically. It was only the preliminaries so the turnout wasn't that high with most of the crowd being medafighters checking out the competition. The school gym had old rickety wooden benches lining the sides, daring people to sit on them so that they could snap. The gym had banners hanging on the sides written "go Riverview" and a few green and red Christmas banners though they were rare. The centre of the gym had a rectangle cut into it with two boxes painted at the ends for medafighters and a line down the middle. Half melted snow was piled up by the entrance as the last few people entered, forgetting to close the door. A gust blew the door open and as soon as it shut, Rokusho was standing there in a slightly tattered cream and red coloured cape. A strange green bracelet was tied to his left antler. Metabee sauntered over and stood next to him, tugging slightly at the blue and silver one tied around both his antlers.

"Yo Rokusho, you seen Ikki anywhere? I can't find him. He said he was going to the bathroom but he's not back yet."

Rokusho stayed silent, just staring out the window. Metabee scratched his head, not knowing how to break the odd silence. "Yooo... Rokusho, now that you're here, where did you go? After we beat Meda-evil, you just disappeared."

More silence. Finally, Rokusho turned back to face Metabee.

"I'm sorry that I worried you. After the Professor left again, I resumed my travels, wandering around aimlessly, questioning why he would leave me again so suddenly. But I was worrying over nothing. Within a few months Dr Armond returned, not a changed man, but no longer hell-bent on the destruction of the human race. He concluded that there were races far stronger than the medarolli people, but that does not change his position on wishing to rebuild their kingdom. What does is how we managed to defeat him using the bonds of our medafighters and ourselves. He says Hushi showed him kingdoms where similar things have happened, where people like Armond have won, and where they have lost and he understood his errors from there. He wished to show me what he had learnt and to make me understand just what kind of hidden power I had locked underneath. I learnt much, and along with Hushi, we studied extensively, both here on earth and in different galaxies. But in the end our power, our reason for existence centred around earth, the Tochikans. But none of us could find much more about them but some others who were formed by them."

"What, you mean other medabots?"

"I mean, others who have similar genetics. From what I heard from that strange boy is anything to go by, it is imperative that we find out their secrets soon."

"Ah, Metabee gets it. You're here on some secret spy mission to find out about our energy levels or something weird like that, some zen focus inner-chi stuff that will help us!"

Rokusho's eyes closed showing traditional Japanese anime style graphics for a look that accompanies a smile.

"No, I'm just here to cheer you on!"

His attention turned back to the announcer in blue jeans and a red jacket. Strangely enough, he looked like an older version of Ikki.

"Welcome to the qualifier round! I shall be your announcer for this qualifier, Henry Augustus! Please, no applause."

A deafening silence filled the gym, only broken by a cough.

"His last name is _Augustus?_" Metabee asked sniggering. "Is he really Japanese?"

Rokusho shut his eyes understandingly.

_Henry Augustus, Hikaru Agata. I'm surprised I never noticed the link before. I guess I really did gain some wisdom on my long journey away from home..._

"Note, these are the preliminary rounds. This tourney will not work like any other. There will be three judges who will determine who qualifies, but merely winning rounds is not enough. You will be judged for your ingenuity, wit, guts, conduct, skill at mechanics, and skills in combat. These apply to both you and your medabot! (except of course that combat skills are for the medabot only and mechanics for medafighters only!) Our three judges are:

Nae Akihabara,

Atom Akihabara or Dr. Aki,

And Mr. Karnab of the WRA, visiting all the way from Tokyo!"

All three judges stood up so that everybody could see them. Mr. Karnab put a hand up as if asking for no applause. He looked fifty years old with a balding head, silver hair, a bristly moustache and round spectacles. He had a grey ill-fitting suit on with a crooked tie, making him look like a small-time tradesman. Henry continued speaking.

"This method for deciding the winners of the tournament does not decide the winners of each round, but what it does decide is who is worthy of going on to the next round. That means that in theory, all of you could go on to the real tournament, or all of you could fail and not move on. Are you ready?"

This time, the crowd really did get pumped up. A big screen at the end of the gym started flashing yellow before finally displaying ROUND 1.

"First up is... Ikki, versus... DC!"

DC jumped five feet in the air in excitement and ran to his half of the gym. Chrome skidded in front of him in a fighting pose, one arm pointed forward ready to shoot and his right arm holding his elbow for support. His white eyes seemed to flare with a crazed passion. DC grabbed the peak of his red Gap cap and turned it around so it was facing backwards. He brought his medawatch up to his face in preparation.

"It's time for me to show you what us guys from M-dubs can really do!" he screamed. A gust of wind blew in from the open doors. DC instantly wrapped his arms around himself shivering like he'd slept in a freezer. "Ah forget this! I hate snow! I hate it with every fibre of my being!"

"DC is the fifth strongest medafighter from Malawi," Henry screamed. "A medafighter with true spirit, his only weakness is the cold as he doesn't count his medal defect as a determent in the slightest!"

"I'm not defective!" Chrome screamed.

"And Ikki Tenryou is... Ikki?"

Ikki was still nowhere to be seen. Metabee tapped his foot impatiently.

"Come on Ikki, where are you?"

"Just give up," Windstorm said offhandedly. "He's not going to show,"

"He'll show," Rokusho said with a slight glint in his eyes. "I can feel it. But I warn you, you may not like what he'll do once he does."

Before they could question him, the door which had finally been closed was suddenly flung open. Ikki collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath.

"Sorry...I'm...late..." He picked himself up off the floor. "So... is it my turn yet?"

"Yes it is! Just in time to! We present to you the third best of Japan, Ikki Tenryou!"

"Hey Henry, what are you doing here?" Ikki asked.

"Uh... I'm kinda out of work right now so I've been doing odd-jobs to get by. This is my final year you know, I can't starve to death now. Anyway, go up to the stage. You're about to robattle DC. I can't give you any advice as I promised not to be biased but be careful. Ok?"

Ikki nodded his head and stepped up to the arena. Metabee followed him, not willing to ask questions just yet.

"Good morning everybody," Dr. Aki said. "Now as the judge I need to clarify something for this particular match. The medabot Chrotojil has a slight error with his medal that may make this match slightly unfair for DC and Chrotojil. During the fight, things may go wrong which may lead to death to any of the medabots. Because of this we will have to take safety measures. If we deem that something is wrong, we may choose to terminate the match early and decide who the winner is based on what we have seen. This will be the case with any kind of dangerous atmosphere such as malfunctioning parts or a limiter release. Thank you."

Chrome smiled inwardly to himself.

_Finally, somebody who doesn't call me defective!_

"Thanks, but we won't have a problem!" Chrome yelled. "I'm not going to break down here."

"We'll see..."

Metabee hopped from one foot to the other, jabbing the air.

"Alright Ikki, it's go time!"

"No, not this time," he answered. Metabee hung his head dejectedly.

"Alright boss, guess that means it'll be me!" Windstorm said, transforming her arm into a flexor sword.

"Not you either."

This time it was Windstorm's turn to look dejected.

"Ikkster, I don't think we're both allowed to robattle at the same time," Metabee pointed out.

"You won't."

"So who's robattling?!"

Ikki flashed them a wry smile. He slowly brought up a black and pink medawatch to his face. Metabee's eyes widened.

"Ikki, don't tell me you're..."

"Transport, **Queen Bee!**" A blue electric ball sparked in the centre of the gym. Then it changed to pink, then yellow, then finally black before the medabot materialized in front of them. The yellow queen like medabot stood there, staring down Chrome blankly. Everybody gasped.

"What the fudge?" DC asked, replacing what he almost said with the word 'fudge'. "That evil thing is under your care? What the heck is going on? Didn't you blow it to smithereens? Didn't you hand it in to the Select Corps?"

"Ikki, what kind of joke is this?" Akkiana asked dead serious. "That thing is not a medabot its a murderer. You can't be serious about using it." Windstorm nodded her head understandingly.

"Ah, you're just letting me use the medaparts. I see..."

"No, I'm actually using her medal," Ikki said flatly. It took a few seconds for it to really sink in before everyone who met Queen Bee screamed in outrage.

"Ikki, I'm your medabot, not her!"

"That's just low..."

"What's wrong with you?"

"Do you know what she did to my medabot? He's been having nightmares about her!"

"Actually all of the dreams were quite pleasant..."

Ikki ignored them.

"Guys, she said that if we beat her we could do whatever she wanted with the medaparts and her medal. Maybe I could reform her?"

"Then it's agreed!"

A giant snowball rolled into the gym before stopping in the very centre of the gym. An elderly man poked his head out through the top. His arms stabbed out of it too until finally the snowball melted down. "I officially declare this a submission robattle! The rules are simple! But I guess you know them already!"

"You bet!" Ikki thrust a shining medal with a monkey imprint into Queen Bee's hatch. The sound of machinery starting up filled the gym before finally her eyes flashed on. They were still black but now they seemed to have tiny stars or sparks glittering in them. A silver outline circled them. A yawning sound escaped her voice box as she started stretching.

"You actually beat that kid huh? Bah! It wasn't even you who did it. Just be glad he didn't call his boss otherwise not even that queer old man would have survived. Anyway, am I meant to follow your orders now like a slave or something? Cause I'm not into that kind of thing."

"Gee, I wouldn't have guessed the way you treat your victims," Metabee said with venom. The two glared at each other for a moment before Queen Bee focused on Chrome again. Chrome took a nervous step back, his medaparts trembling.

"Um... what kind of weird attacks do you have?" he asked nervous.

"I can show you!" she said with a wink. Chrome took several hurried steps back, almost crashing into his medafighter.

"Pull yourself together Chrome!" he said, slapping him on the shoulders. Chrome nodded his head and stepped back inside.

"Medafighters ready?"

Data clicked on everybody's medawatches.

**Queen Bee: Unknown Producers**

**Medafighter: Ikki Tenryou**

**Speciality: Close Quarters Combat (CQC)**

**Medal Type: Monkey**

**Signature: Toxic bliss**

**. . .**

**Chrotojil (Chrome): Consumer electronics (CES)**

**Medafighter: DC**

**Specialty: Hit and run tactics**

**Medal type: Kabuto**

**Signature: Gunmetal barrage**

"Medabots, robatllleee!"

Both medabots charged towards each other. Queen Bee's insect like wings whirred loudly as she flew and the repetitive thumping of Chromes feet sounded almost like some kind of drums. They both collided with a hollow clang, quickly separating again.

"Chrom, chain machinegun!"

Chrome brought up his machinegun and let loose a volley of bullets. Queen Bee darted around in the air with the flight patterns of a bee, dodging every shot easily.

"Queen Bee, rapid flying kicks now!"

"No! Leave me to it!"

Completely ignoring Ikki, Queen Bee shot back down and flew around Chrome laughing like an innocent little girl. Chrome looked around him with a terrified look in his eyes. Queen Bee reached out and grabbed Chrome by his horns, pulling him off the ground and into the air. While in the air she swung him around and slammed him back into the court. The wood underneath him splintered even though it was reinforced underneath with concrete.

**39% damage to head medapart. Leg medapart at 60% damage.**

Chrome picked himself up off the floor, oil splashing out of his head cannons as he made a coughing noise.

"Chrome, are you okay?"

Chrome's eyes looked deactivated as if he had shut down. Finally, he looked up again, all fear evaporated.

"That chick must die! Nobody embarrasses Chrotojil like that! I'm in this DC, just say the word and I'm in!"

"Right, Chrotojil, local combat!"

Chrome brought both of his arms up again, tilting them sideways as if he were a gangster and assailed Queen Bee again. Queen Bee dodged them all as easily as before. Ikki stared down Chrome for ten seconds trying to figure out what was happening.

_His stance doesn't look any better for a medabot who uses guns. It looks more solid but doesn't really support his arms. It's like he's not even trying to aim anymore..._

"Queen Bee, stay away from him until I can think of a plan. Hand-to-hand is not a good idea here!"

"Please, I specialise in CQC, I won't lose here!"

She swooped down from the skies to charge Chrome, her stingers pointed in front of her.. Chrome's eyes lit up in rage. Almost too quickly, he grabbed both stingers and smashed her into the ground. Before she could get up again, Chrome sprinted to her and gave her a punt to the head. All of the bolts in her head rattled around like a broken light bulb. Chrome yanked her back up and then gave her a quick jab in the face, then a left hook, three right snap jabs, a left jab, right uppercut and a haymaker, knocking her back to the ground.

"Queen, get out of there!"

"I don't need you telling me what to do!" She growled, picking herself back up off the floor.

"Chrome, give her stones! Stones!"

Chrotojil swung a hard and fast kick at her knee, tripping her back down to the ground. When she tried getting up he gave her a leg sweep, knocking her back down. Finally, Queen Bee frantically flew back to Ikki's side. Chrome held both of his fists up like a boxer.

"Queen Bee, listen to my orders!" Ikki screamed.

"Why should I?" she yelled back in rage. "It's not like he really did anything to me." Ikki checked his medawatch and true enough, it wasn't as bad as he thought.

**Warning. Head medapart at 35% damage. Slight disorientation may occur.**

"Take it easy, you might be made of titanium or something, but you're still only medabot. Another attack like that and you might not get up again."

"Please, who do you think I..."

Queen Bee was rudely interrupted by two seeker missiles that slammed into her. She stepped out of the explosion breathing heavily with wide enraged eyes. As quickly as it left, her calm playful expression returned.

"Wow you're strong! It looks like I have to get serious!"

Ikki tried giving out orders but she didn't even bother listening to them. She charged straight at Chrome like lightning, kicking him hard in the stomach. Before he could recover, she flipped sideways over him and smashed her elbow on the back of his head, crushing his face into the floor. She yanked him out of the ground, swinging him around into a wall that didn't have people on it. Miss Nae let out a fake cough, signalling that the match was getting dangerous.

"DC, what do I do..." Chrome asked weakly as he collapsed on the floor.

**Warning. All parts at 60% damage.**

"I dunno, give me time to think..."

Metabee watched DC curiously. Beads of sweat trickled down his face like a waterfall. His pupils had dilated, barely visible.

"Yo, what's going on?" Metabee asked Aokshi. "This guy was a monster back when we first met him, but now he's barely given a single useful order. What's going on?"

"Don't worry, it's his robattle style," Aokshi replied. "When I arrived with Akkia we met him. We were attacked by rogue medabots and it was probably because of him that I survived. We were robattling and he was doing terribly. Chrome was fighting hard out there but DC couldn't do a thing. That's when he truly showed us what he could do."

Metabee looked at him questioningly. Queen Bee darted over to Chrome and picked him up off the floor.

"Not bad for a KBT type, but it will never be enough to beat me." Queen Bee held up a stinger to his face, gently stroking it with the point. "Which poison would you want to be defeated by? Pain increaser? Maybe I should shut down all your senses? Or would you like the mind control to make you fall ho-pless-ly-in-love? I like the attention from that one."

Ikki looked down at the ground, regretting ever trying to re-activate her.

_She's not going to attack everybody, but to win like this isn't even worth it! All the sorries in the world can't make up for this... DC and Chrome will hate me, Metabee will hold a grudge against me, Windstorm won't respect me, even Karin will be disappointed in me..._

"Chrome, it's time to go all out."

"You finally ready?"

"Heck yeah I'm ready let's do this! Point blank missiles!"

Both Chrome and the Queen exploded in a massive cloud of smoke, blasting them apart. Queem Bee charged back at him.

"Chrome, sand-the-floor!"

Chrome batted Queen Bee aside like a fly with a martial arts block, sweeping his arm to the left and knocking her off balance. While like that he kneed her in the stomach with the force to match a freight train. She shot up into the air, smashing into the steel ceiling above and leaving a Quen-shaped dent in the metal.

"No mercy Chrome, rifle this sucka!"

"Queen Bee, get out of there!"

Before Queen Bee could even move, five well-aimed shots embedded themselves in her knees and hip.

**100% damage to leg medaparts. Functions ceased.**

Queen Bee peeled off the roof slowly before with a loud pop she collapsed to the ground, splintering the wood. Chrome peppered the body with machinegun bullets.

"Queen Bee, if you want to win you _have _to listen to me! You will not win unless you follow my orders!"

"But I'm the Queen... I don't need help...from...you..."

She rolled to the side, starting up her damaged wings again to try and escape the bullets.

"Chrome, Close-Quarters-Combat!"

"What? Seriously?"

DC was bounding about jumping up and down and moving his arms around animatedly everytime he gave a command.

"Yes, yes, go! Go now!" Chrome sprinted towards Queen Bee.

"Useless, what you do is useless!"

Queen Bee fenced off a wild aimed fist with her stinger, then stabbed Chrome in the shoulder. Chrome growled in pain then kicked her away. She gave him a mischievous smile. Chrome's left arm went slack by his side and darkened.

**70% damage. Functions ceased.**

"Chrome, initiate full system reboot!"

The hatch at Chrome's back opened up flinging his medal out. As if it was timed, his arm flew back and grabbed the medal, stuffing it back inside despite him being knocked out. His eyes flashed back on.

**System reboot. Left arm functioning at 70% damage.**

His arm brightened again. Queen Bee enraged stabbed at Chrome's throat. Chrome ducked underneath and ducked behind her.

"Headphones: Phillips!"

Chrome stuck his index fingers out at a right angle to his open palm and smashed the side of Queen Bee's head, his fingers almost digging into her head. Electricity coursed through her whole body as she collapsed to the ground. "Now Chrome, Headphone: Beats, then Skull candies!"

Chrome cupped his hands and smashed her head again, dragging her up into the air before doing it again, smashing her to the ground. Ikki looked down at his medawatch with wide eyes.

_He's only attacking her head! She'll be practically shut down by now!_

**80% damage to head medapart. Caution.**

"Queen Bee, please listen to me for once! We can't win like this!"

"I..."

DC had an electric spark in his eyes, the force of it radiating around him.

"Chrome, it's time... Gunmetal barrage! Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, **go!**"

Chromes missile cannons started rotating crazily. A stream of seeker missiles erupted from out of them, nearly knocking him over in the process. A massive air wave blew past everybody who was nearby. DC's clothes rippled in the force of the attack, almost blowing his cap off his head. Chrome's parts started wearing away but he stayed strong. Queen Bee shut her eyes admitting defeat.

**Warning. Medal defect at 150%. Shutdown imminent.**

**Warning. Queen Bee at ?damage. Awaiting results.**

"Queen Bee, you ready now?"

All was silent. "Queen Bee?"

The dust from the explosion cleared. Queen Bee stood in the centre of the gym, her stingers on fire.

"Give me your orders, boss..."

Ikki let loose a massive wolfish grin.

"Queen Bee, I've scanned your medaparts recently. I think I know what to do. Switch to the hypnosis poison!"

Queen Bee shot towards Chrome like lightning. Amazingly, Chrome hadn't blacked out yet. In fact, he was even more pumped. DC was the same.

"This is epic!" they both screamed at the same time with the same voice. "Ikki, you've finally woken up. Lets do this!"

Both medabots clashed against eachother, nothing more than a blur as they smashed each other to pieces. Finally, Queen Bee backed down, lying on the ground with sparking parts. Chrome ran towards her.

"Now Chrome, Finish it! Headphone: Beats!"

Ikki grinned.

"Queen Bee, Toxic flood!"

Queen Bee's eyes flashed back on. She pointed her stingers forward at the last moment, letting Chrome impale himself using his momentum.

"See ya! **Toxic Flood!**" The purple poison literally flooded out of her stingers, spilling everywhere like a typhoon. The poison spurted out of every crack in Chrome's armour possible. Queen Bee tossed Chrome to the side as his body went limp from the sensor reducing poison.

**100% damage to head medapart. Functions ceased.**

"Functions ceased! The winner is, Queen Bee!"

Ikki slumped to the ground exhausted. DC had a huge grin on his face as if he had won. He quickly glanced the exhausted Queen Bee and gave her a thumbs up.

"Epic fight. I think we've just gained a powerful new nakama!"

**That's all folks! I dragged that one on way too long but this was really just to get to the Winter tourney and to introduce Queen Bee. Next chap will be more focused on Samantha since she's just disappeared. Real sorry for the generation long delay! I was hit by a storm of Writers Block for a while so I was chilling. Then I started writing this other fic to get back into the swing of things and got carried away with it. Don't worry, there won't be a wait that long for a while! Hopefully never again!**

**The real deal out!**

**This, is, SPIRIT!**


	17. Forging bonds

**Darn it, I've been going over my chapters and I've been messing up that Spirit thing. Like This is T? This i T? You know what? I'll check them all again and fix them. If anybody does notice a problem with my intros, please tell me. It looks odd. Anyway:**

_Long ago in a distant past, there was a mighty and powerful race known as the Tochikans! The legacy of the Tochikans is a long and great one that stretches across thousands of worlds and destinies, linked with all the ancients known and _unknown_. This is the tale of those whose destinies are intertwined with what is left of the Tochikans._

_This_

_**Is**_

_**SPIRIT!**_

**Chapter 17: Forging bonds**

"The winner is, Queen Bee!"

The crowd exploded in a mass of applause, despite the crowd being relatively small. Nobody was expecting a match like that. Queen Bee was supposed to mop the floor with Chrome, but she was the one on defensive for most of the match. In the end it was only because of Ikki's skill that she won. Metabee stared in disbelief at Chrome whose medal had just been placed back in his back. His whole body was limp and DC was slapping him across the face trying to wake him up again.

"Aokshi, Rokusho, what just happened?" Metabee asked in disbelief. Aokshi's eyes closed in a smug smile.

"That's their robattle style. It's terrifying if you let them robattle like that but it's really more of a problem to him than anything. Chrome starts off all robattles with a bang and tries to finish off his enemies before they can attack him. It's because if he draws out a match too long he'll probably have a seizure and forfeit the match."

"So you have to draw out the match?"

"If he had a different medafighter, yes."

Metabee looked at him confused. Rokusho picked up the conversation from there.

"DC's robattle style is the polar opposites to his medabot. And not because he's trying to either. It takes a long time to get DC motivated to do anything, and the cold weather doesn't make it any easier. You could say he's lazy but that's not the case. Once he is actually inspired to do something, there is no stopping him, not even when he's dead. That attack is proof of that where he virtually came back from the dead. In a robattle, he cannot think of good strategies unless he feels the battle truly is 'epic' in which case he will show no mercy. The two use their own strategies to their advantage. Chrome starts the fight and stays alive until DC is ready, then DC finishes it. The downside to this is they lose a lot of power in the process and there is a serious danger of Chrome shutting down from it."

"Oh… so Ikki took too long?"

"Far too long. I'm amazed he won."

Ikki exhaled and walked over to Queen Bee. Queen Bee looked up at Ikki, now lying on her back with her hands behind her head.

"You do realize that I'm only going to listen to you if I have to, right?"

"I know." Ikki said exasperated before ejecting her medal and placing it back in the medawatch. He pressed another button and the parts transported back home. He walked back to Metabee and Windstorm and plopped himself down on a bench.

"The scores are still being counted up," Windstorm pointed out.

"Huh?"

True enough, the three judges were talking rapidly to each other trying to decide something. Mr Karnab then called Henry over and quietly told him something. Henry nodded his head and began announcing again.

"Wow that was quite a round! The winner here was Ikki and Queen Bee, but will there display have been enough to best DC's fabulous fighting Spirit?"

"Oh yeah! I still might not win!" Ikki exclaimed.

"So? Want me to bite your nails for you, _boss?_" Windstorm said with icy coldness.

"Or maybe we could repair Queen Bee's medaparts or something," Metabee joined in with sarcasm.

"Just cause I didn't let you guys fight doesn't mean you have to treat me like I'm slime."

"Oh that's right boss! We can't treat you _like _you're slime because you_ are _slime!"

Ikki shook his head and continued listening to Henry.

"…the results are as follows. All of the points added up, Ikki could have gotten a maximum of thirty points for this round. And Ikki has… 17 and a half!"

"**What?!"**

Henry shook his head sadly.

"Apparently Ikki's lack of control over such a powerful medabot could have cost him the whole game. He didn't show any kind of cooperation and once he did have control he was still in a very sticky spot. Poor show Ikki."

Ikki buried his face in his arms, his knees tucked in as he repeatedly said to himself 'This is all a dream, I'm a good person. This is all a dream, I'm a good person…' Metabee was rolling on the floor in laughter.

"That's barely past halfway! Of all the things Ikki, ha!"

"And as for DC and Chrome, they got a total score of… 24! A nice score! His fighting Spirit and sportsmanship was something phenomenal. The crowd couldn't help but cheer for him the whole way. His mechanic skill must have been quite special for him to wire Chrotojil to be able to eject his medal and still move to catch it and reboot himself. I didn't think that was possible! However, he was seriously rated down for being far too reckless with his medabot and for a slight imbalance in how well he worked together with Chrome. Karnab's advice to the both of them is to look at eachother's battle styles and try to mimic them. Don't forget though, this is only the first round, and points here may not matter at the end. This is only the qualifier round. Next up, we have Billy versus…"

A few more matches happened next without anything too interesting. Ikki was called again after a while but it was against a complete newbie so he won quickly. The whole time DC was pouting about not getting to face Sakura who had yet again, snuck out of her dad's care. He didn't tell anyone why though.

"So next up, we have… Leo versus Akkiana!"

Both medafighters stood up from their spots to make it to the arena. All of the loose split bits of wood were removed, revealing concrete underneath. Aokshi jumped into the arena, brandishing a blood-red sword attached to his right arm. Saikachis pointed his massive bombardier arm at Aokshi.

"Be prepared, I'm not gonna hold back," Saikachis said.

"I wouldn't dream of it!" Aokshi replied heatedly.

"Then it's agreed! Medafighters ready?"

**Akiroshi, a.k.a Aokshi: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Akiana Tenryuo**

**Specialty: Red Blaze**

**Medal type: Lost Medal**

**Signature: Yang medaforce**

. . .

**Saikachis: Medabot Corporation, custom model**

**Medafighter: Leo**

**Specialty: Primal fighting style**

**Medal Type: Kabuto**

**Signature: Starlight Explosion**

Both medafighter nodded at the referee then focused on eachother again, as if hoping to read each other's minds.

"Alright, medabots, robattle!"

"Aokshi, Red blaze attack!"

Quicker than anybody could follow with their eyes, a red fireball flashed through the air. Not even Saikachis could dodge it was he was quickly engulfed by the blast. Ignoring the burns all over his body, he rushed through the smoke and jumped high into the air, his fist held back behind him.

_Never jump when you're in a fight, _Akkiana thought to herself. Instantly, another Red blaze was hurtling towards Saikachis.

"Prominence now!"

A gargantuan yellow energy beam erupted from Saikachis's horns, obliterating the Red Blaze and a large portion of the arena to. A bright flash of red light lit up the arena from the explosion, forcing Aokshi to cover his optics. By the time he opened them again, a hail of seeker missiles were already drilling into him.

**Leg medaparts 100% damage. Functions ceased. Chain reaction. Left arm at 75% damage. Red Blaze attack unstable. Caution is advised.**

Akkia gritted her teeth while Leo just smiled back at her.

_He's a bit too good in my opinion. But now I know what to expect. He'll try and create blind spots and attack them. As long as I have the Red Blaze he'll never attack head on…_

"Aokshi, Quickflash Slash!"

Aokshi held up his sword and became stiff. A bright flash lit the area and before Saikachis knew what happened; his bombardier part was sliding off leaving only a skeleton of an arm.

**Right arm at 100% damage. Legs at 99% damage. Left arm at 80% damage. Slight disorientation.**

"Saikachis, send my medawatch a brief on that move! How does she know how to do that?"

A large hologram showed up on Leo's medawatch displaying the details of that attack. Leo's eyebrows twitched in disbelief after examining it.

_That's even possible? Well in that case…_

"Saikachis, stay on defensive for now. Pick up the bombardier and angle the medaparts 45 degrees up and move it 10 degrees clockwise."

Saikachis sprinted over to his bombardier part, sliding just underneath a Red blaze in the process. He picked up the medapart and fumbled with it a bit before it was ready. Aokshi darted after him.

"Missile launch!"

Two seeker missiles exploded just short of Aokshi. Leo said a few more complicated instructions before finally, Saikachis was in a similar pose to Aokshi when he did the Quickflash.

_I'm relying entirely on the info from my medawatch, _he said to himself. _I don't know how to do such complicated maths so quickly myself so if there's even the tiniest error, I can't fix it. I just hope Saikachis's internal computer knows what to do…_

"Now Saikachis, tilt all your parts towards eachother, use the **Solar Zap Cannon: Light speed Prominence!**"

Saikachis stiffened and suddenly the room became engulfed in a bright white light. The light quickly turned bright yellow and before anybody knew what happened, there was the sound of a blazing inferno and the scraping of metal on metal. When the light died down, Aokshi was clutching his left arm with scorch marks all over him. The Prominence cannon had smoke coming off of it. Akkiana stared in amazement.

"You copied my Quickflash… with a gun?!"

"Just barely," Saikachis and Leo replied at the same time.

"But dude, I rocked that move!" Saikachis shouted energetically. Leo continued speaking.

"Now I know how that move works. The Quickflash is a move that makes it seem as if you are moving at light speed when really you're not even moving as fast as a Shadow Sword. Most likely by using all of your medaparts, you simply shine light in the eyes of your opponent to make them lose sight of you, then attack when they are dizzied. The more advanced versions like the one you used shines light at yourself, reflecting and doubling it, then quadrupling it, and so on until you shine it everywhere, flashing out everything. It's almost impossible to do but it works. All I had to do was modify it slightly and suddenly you have a lightspeed Prominence!"

The crowd was going wild. And all the while Henry was announcing it.

"This is insane! Both medafighters are evenly matched, both with no arms, no legs and damaged medaparts! It doesn't get much better than this!"

A massive explosion erupted from the ceiling. Two figures dived down from above, crashing into the middle of the arena. Panic erupted in the gym as people rushed about, some to run away, others to fight. Before anybody could even say 'robattle' a whole heap of medabots had been shut down. As suddenly as they had arrived, they disappeared through that same hole in the roof. The dust slowly began to clear as everybody got up again.

"Everybody stay calm," Dr. Aki said trying to get everyone's attention. Leo looked up at the hole in the ceiling. Snow was falling in from it landing on the arena. He looked around him with a grim look in his eyes. Akkiana ran over to where Aokshi was, crushed under a collapsed beam of steel. With an unreasonable amount of strength, she flung the steel bar off of him and checked his parts were still okay. She spotted the glint of a medal to her right.

"Seriously? Those guys?"

It was a grey medal with a red R on it. As she looked around she noticed a span of medabots missing along with a whole host of electronic equipment. Some people found their wallets were picked or their jewelry (not that there was much of it) was missing.

_Is this really the Rubberrobo gang? It looks like they weren't joking when they said that they had improved when they became 'Team Renegade'. Why didn't Ikki warn us that they were stronger?_

Akkia stepped over the debris and made it to Leo. He quickly told him about the dropped Renegade emblem.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go after them!"

The two ran over to the entrance. Ikki was already out the door sprinting after them with Metabee and Windstorm close behind. Ikki looked up at the sky to see a hot air balloon with a massive red R painted on it.

"That's a bit too conspicuous…" Ikki said to himself. A gust of wind knocked him face first into the cold biting snow. He looked up to see Windstorm flying up to the balloon with a tornado gushing around her. Her arm was in its usual pale silver and blue katana form. She flew above the basket and with a quick clean cut, sliced the ropes off of the balloon, dropping the basket to the ground. The basket hit the floor with an unusually loud smash. They all ran towards it eagerly. Leo, Akkia, DC and Sakura were all close behind them and within moments, they were all gathered around the basket with Sakura pointing a gun towards the centre.

"No way…" DC said to himself.

"We've been doped guys," Akkia said, her serene voice hiding a bubbling rage. Inside were two stuffed toys resembling the old Rubberrobo crewmembers in their old outfits, along with a sack of rocks. When they looked up they could just see two jet streams in the distance, likely from two medabots. DC folded his arms in frustration.

"So… what's going to happen about the match?"

"I guess we'll have to cancel it without an arena to battle in," Leo said sadly. "And besides, a lot of the contestants lost their medabots. It wouldn't be fair to disqualify them for it. They'll give us feedback on what they've seen so far if that's okay." DC took up the speaking from there.

"Just know guys, we're gonna catch those Latex bozos, but for now we should just chill. Alright? Cool. Now, time for us to evaporate, and condense somewhere else!" The effect wasn't as powerful as he had a large wooly blanket wrapped around him and was shivering uncontrollably.

Everybody slowly dispersed, all of them going their separate ways, with DC saying "dang I hate the cold!" Ikki trekked through the snow sullenly with Metabee trailing behind. Windstorm seemed to be drifting along behind him.

"So Ikki, what now?"

"I don't know… well one thing's for sure; I don't want to use Queen Bee unless I absolutely have to. She has so much power but she doesn't listen to a word I say. I guess for emergencies."

"So what do we do know?"

"I dunno… just go around town or something. There's that café, the Snackbar. We could go there or something."

They looked back at the gym which now had people filing out of it, angry that they couldn't finish the tournament. Mr. Karnab assured them that he would e-mail the results to them as soon as possible. With a sigh, they left the area.

. . .

A girl in a blue denim jacket plopped down in the nearest chair by the window. She stared outside at the snow falling and wondered why she wasn't at home with a cup of coffee. A red and yellow cat medabot with a bell tied around her neck sat down in the chair next to her. She planted her head on the table, too tired to move.

"Are you okay Samantha?" the medabot asked worried.

"Yeah I'm fine. Winters are just so cold for no reason, what's up with this? Ugh!"

The waitress came by to ask for an order. Samantha asked for a cup of hot chocolate but the medabot didn't order anything. As soon as the waitress left Samantha lifted her head up off the desk.

"You know something? I don't think your name really suits you."

The medabot looked up surprised. "I mean, I know you're a cat medabot but Puttycat? No way."

"And what's wrong with the name?"

"I dunno, it doesn't feel right when I say it. How did you end up with such a name anyway?"

"Didn't I tell you where I came from?"

"I'm bored, I don't mind listening again."

Puttycat sighed.

"During the Kilobot era, had a medafighter. She wasn't really that strong but she was really sneaky. She always had some kind of plan, whether it was for a robattle or to make extra money. She took care of me and though she got mad really easily she was still my medafighter. But then things started changing. She stopped doing things with me. She stopped taking me shopping with her, I no longer helped her baby-sitting, eventually she even stopped robattling. I thought it was all my fault, that I'd done something wrong somewhere to get her to hate me. Then the day came when I found a large grey box in her bedroom. There were red stickers on it. I asked my medafighter what it was and she just smiled and said it was her new partner. I looked at her confused before I felt my medal ejecting. When I came to I was in a basement. Her little brother was standing next to me, he probably accidentally reactivated me. When I asked him what happened he said I was stored there for nine months now and that my medafighter now used a kilobot, and Ambiguous-2. I couldn't believe it. How could she do that to me? Just throw me out like some old toy that was broken? I ran out of the house and was just wandering the streets when you found me."

Samantha's face kept straight and slightly bored, but Puttycat could tell by now she was just hiding behind a mask so she wouldn't seem emotional.

"Just for the record, who was your medafighter?" Samantha asked as she took a sip of her drink as it arrived.

"Her name was Suzie."

Samantha spat out a gushing stream of hot chocolate right into her medabot's face.

"What?! You mean the annoying one who tried pulling my hair in class this morning? She's lucky I was in a good mood that day. But now I know this I'll show her who's boss!"

"Samantha, it's okay. Don't do anything stupid out of anger. You don't need to go after her…"

"I'll show her what the Screws can do when we put our heads together!"

"Umm… excuse me, Samantha?"

Samantha stopped mid-sentence and looked up at the new arrival. Ikki hesitantly sat down in the seat opposite her. He looked to his side to see if Metabee would join him but found he was over on an entirely different table with Windstorm, both of them waving wildly at him.

_Man I can't believe I'm actually talking to Samantha of all people… this feels weird. I was hoping that if I was in this position it would be with Karen or something. I just hope that she's okay though…_

Samantha looked like she'd recovered, but he still hadn't seen her going back to her usual bullying and the Screws Gang had been awfully silent.

"Hey Samantha… are things okay now?"

"Please, you shouldn't have to worry about me you know! I'm Samantha of the Screws Gang! The most powerful and the most beautiful medafighter to ever exist!"

"Glad to see you're still bragging about yourself."

"I have bragging rights!"

Ikki examined the cat medabot by her side.

"Who's she?"

"This is Puttycat. I found her abandoned on the streets so I fixed her up. Now she keeps following me around everywhere I go so I guess she's my medabot now. Keeps me company though."

Puttycat bowed her head politely.

"Pleased to meet you, Ikki Tenryou?"

"Yup. That's me. You've got a pretty strong medafighter now so you should be okay. Just make sure Samantha doesn't get herself in trouble, like for sneaking rogue medafighters in places they shouldn't be!"

"Hey that was one time! And I saved Metabee afterwards so it's fine!" Samantha shouted indignantly.

"Yeah, ignoring that it was your fault in the first place…"

"So you're Ikki Tenryou," Puttycat started up again. "Samantha told me all about how you saved her from certain death in that big saucer, how it was like you were flying through the air just trying to save…"

Samantha wrapped her arms around where her mouth should have been, silencing her.

"What are you telling _him _this for? Aha ha ha ha ha! I don't know what she's talking about! Ignore her, her memory circuits are still fried, she doesn't know what she's talking about!"

"Um… okay… I'll ignore just how suspicious that was…" Samantha's cheeks had turned a bright red by now. She quickly looked out the window.

"Anyways, how did the qualifier round go?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Terrible. I almost lost in the first round and we didn't even finish. Although I'm surprised you didn't compete in it."

"That's 'cause I was in the Medaropolis qualifier. Just like there's one in Riverview, there's one in Medaropolis. I thought the medabots would be weaker so I went there. I only made it to the semi-finals though before Koji creamed me. I hope I can still compete in the festival though."

"Hey you did your best at it right? So it doesn't matter how far you go as long as you actually had fun."

They both kept talking for a while before finally they noticed it was almost five. They had to catch the bus soon so they decided they should leave. Ikki and Samantha both stood up from the table, oddly enough both of them blushing. An odd silence filled the room.

_This is weird, _Ikki thought to himself. _I thought I would hate every moment of this, but oddly enough I enjoyed it. Maybe I could try this again sometime… What are you thinking Ikki? Are you okay? It's Samantha! She'll probably steal your lunch money or something on your next meeting._

They walked out of the front doors and were quickly joined by Metabee and Windstorm. They set off for the bus stop.

"Help! Somebody help!"

The group turned towards the sound of the voice. A black blur shot past them, knocking them over to the side. They looked back up to see a tall adult in a green hunting jacket run past them. Seconds after an alarm rang in a building nearby, a jewelry store.

"Not again, these guys are way too active nowadays!" Ikki said. "Metabee, action mode!"

"Puttycat, Action mode!"

Metabee transformed into his car form as Ikki jumped on his back to ride him. Puttycat's medaparts folded and clicked into place as well, her cat like helmet covering her face to make her head look more like a cats. She landed on the floor on four legs instead with Samantha sitting on her back like that. They both shot off after the adult with Windstorm closely following in the air. The Renegade member looked back to see who was chasing him. It was none other than Seaslug himself.

_Aw man, why do I always meet those kids? And more importantly, why am I always sent on the petty missions like robbing banks when my own wife is the one organizing everything? It's not fair!_

Seaslug ran right across the city streets, diving over a car that almost ran him over. He slid through an alleyway, knocking over trashcans along the way, but each time the people following him would just weave past the obstacles like they were nothing. Finally he made it to the river. He stopped just at the river's edge, teetering just fractions away from the water's surface. He came to a halt, letting out a deep breath.

"Hold it right there!"

Ikki, Samantha, Metabee and Puttycat all came crashing into Seaslugs back, toppling them all over into the river in a loud splash. Then, there was silence.

. . .

Samantha dragged herself out of the water, coughing and spluttering as she did so. Along with her she was pulling out Ikki who's eyes kept swirling around inside his head confusingly. Puttycat crawled out of the water and onto her back, water pouring out of her armor and Windstorm who had already pulled Metabee out was shaking him upside down in the air to get the water out of his systems. Parts of his armor were frozen over completely. Ikki finally came around and blinked. Colours swam in front of his eyes. He felt exactly as if he was dipped in a deep freezer. Suddenly, he remembered that they were chasing someone. He bolted upright.

"Seaslug!"

"He got away," Samantha said gloomily. "And sadly, so did our bus tickets." She held a tiny bit of soaking ripped paper in her hand, probably what was left of her ticket. She let out a deep sigh. "Well, we can always walk home."

Ikki tried standing up but suddenly let out a massive sneeze, collapsing on the ground again. He sniffed up a dribble of snot that was oozing down his nose.

"If I don't get pneumonia or something, then maybe…"

He got up on shaky legs finally and with a bit of help from Metabee and Samantha, they set off for home.


	18. Mistletoes and medaparts

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This is Spirit! Christmas edition**

**Chapter 18: Mistletoes and medaparts (The fight for the Spirit Cup!)**

Yet again, Ikki was tinkering with Metabee's medaparts, trying to get them just right. Metabee's medal was on Ikki's bed, the blue gem in the middle glinting. Ikki stared at the pattern for a moment. It depicted a beetle in its pupae stage, looking almost like a caterpillar. Ikki let out a tiny smile.

_It looks like I'm getting stronger again._

Ikki took the medal and placed it inside Metabee's body again. His eyes flashed green as they came back to life.

"Hey Metabee, I've made a few adjustments to your tin-pet to take more pressure yet still remain lightweight. You might need a bit of time to get used to things so take it for a spin."

Metabee stood up and stretched his arms as he warmed up. He looked around the room as he got a feel for things. Ikki checked his medawatch to see what he was seeing and sure enough everything was in order. Metabee turned back to face Ikki.

"Yo Ikki, you sure we made the tournament? I mean, we got the lowest score in the last tournament, and couldn't even finish it. Just to make things worse, you used the most powerful medabot there in the fight and still almost lost. Of course, she wasn't stronger than me…"

"Don't worry about it. There's always next time if we don't make it now."

Metabee folded his arms with a resigned look on his face.

"Whatever. Just know, I told you so." Ikki looked at him with a confused look. "Well remember, I said use me in the next fight! But you said, and quote: 'no, we'll use the evil conniving freaky bee witch medabot instead!'"

"Metabee, I never said that!"

"And then I said use me instead," Windstorm said, appearing out of nowhere floating lazily on what looked like a cloud. "But you chose that evil conniving freaky bee witch medabot and it barely listened to a word you said!"

"I'm an 'it' now?" a female malicious voice said. Everybody froze up and turned around slowly. Queen Bee stood there glaring at all three of them, tapping her foot impatiently. All three of them took a step back, just to realize their backs were against the wall.

"Well… um… about that…" Ikki tried desperately to explain. Her medawatch was on the bed so he couldn't eject her medal. He closed his eyes preparing for what was to come.

"Ikki, there's a letter for you!" the bedroom door opened up and Ikki's mother poked her head in the room holding a brown envelope. She took a glance at the scene before continuing. "Are you all playing nice? It would be terrible if someone got hurt."

"Yes Mrs. Tenryou," Queen Bee replied as sweet as sugar. She quickly covered Metabee and Ikki's mouths and with her foot, pushed on Ikki's medawatch, ejecting Windstorm's medal. Her eyes looked 100% sincere despite how the others were fighting with all their might to take her hands off. Ikki's mother just smiled sweetly, oblivious to the hostile intent in the air.

"Well that's great. Have fun!"

The door slammed shut, the envelope leaving along with her. Queen Bee's face turned back to evil smile, her stingers dripping with toxic looking ooze.

**After several grueling and painful minutes…**

Queen Bee dusted off her palms and lay down on Ikki's bed falling asleep. Ikki swayed side to side before collapsing on the floor with bruises all over. Metabee sat down cross-legged with dents in his armour.

"Do you _still _think waking her up was a good idea?"

Ikki glanced at Queen Bee who looked fast asleep. He would have removed her medal right there but he couldn't feel his legs.

"I… don't… know…"

Metabee turned Windstorm back on and as soon as she saw Metabee's beat down condition she broke into laughter, rolling all over the floor.

"What happened to you? A horde of Belzelgas on a bad day?"

"Shut up okay? Just get the letter from Mrs. T, okay?"

Windstorm left and quickly returned afterwards holding the envelope. Ikki tore it open and got up to read it.

"_Dear Ikki Tenryou:_

_It is agreed that due to your impressive display at the Winter festival preliminary rounds, you have been chosen to move on to the next round. You shall meet many others from both Riverview and Medaropolis. Congratulations Ikki, Metabee, Windstorm and Queen Bee_

_From me, Mr Referee._"

Ikki stared at the letter long and hard at the letter, not sure if he could take it in. Even Queen Bee had gotten up to see it. They all stared at it quietly for a while. Finally, Windstorm spoke up.

"We did it…" They all just stared at the envelope, finally registering what just happened. "We're going to the Winter Festival!" They all broke into cheers jumping into the air.

"Alright guys, time to get to work! We don't have much time to practice. Queen Bee, you're gonna have to learn to follow orders, Windstorm, you just aren't strong enough yet so keep practicing the Shadow Sword, Metabee, focus on mastering your new tin-pet. This is it Metabee, we're going to re-master the medaforce!"

"Aye!"

They all sprinted out of the bedroom door, down the stairs and out of the house to find everyone else to see who went on, not bothering to call them instead. Windstorm and Queen Bee shot of into the skies, Windstorm being propelled onwards by a whirlwind while Queen Bee was keeping up with just her ordinary wings. Metabee didn't bother transforming, preferring to run with Ikki as well.

. . .

Everyone was gathered in the new 'spot' since the Hopmart got destroyed. The Snackbar. Henry was nowhere to be seen so it didn't feel the same. People had been seeing him in random places doing odd jobs in random places. Ignoring his absence, they all ordered Milkshakes and discussed random stuff.

"Hey guys, check this out!" DC held up a brown envelope a lot like Ikki's and pulled out a letter. "I got through! I made it to the next round! That's right guys, even though I lost in the first round, I got to move forward. Shows just how awesome we are!" both DC and Chrome flexed their muscles comically.

"I got in too," Leo said crossing his arms with a content smile.

"Same here," Akkia said staring at Leo as if threatened.

"Sorry guys, I didn't make it to the next round," Sakura said dejectedly. "But I'll be rooting for you all the way!" DC put a thumb up at her.

"Hakuna Matata. It happens sometimes. Just let us handle it ok? Now as for everything else, let's for once not worry too much about winning the Winter Festival. This is no time to focus on wining or beating the snot out of anybody. Let's all just have fun at what we do, ok? This is Christmas! We don't want to hold grudges at this time of year no matter who you are, what background you come from, or anything like that."

"Alright then guys, let's do our best!" Ikki shouted with enthusiasm. Everyone replied with a yell getting all fired up. Akkia paid the bill and then they all left, dispersing like the meeting was just a big coincidence. "Hey Metabee," Ikki said, looking back at Metabee after noticing he was lagging behind dragging his feet in the snow. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"What?" Metabee quickly straightened up as stiff as a board, but the effect was ruined when he slipped on a bit of ice and crashed head first into the ground.

"What's bothering you buddy? It's not like we're gonna mess up or anything."

"What? Do I look nervous? My bad. I'm not sad! I'm full of energy! Ready for that tournament? You know, I'll fly like a butterfly, sting like a Metabee!"

"Come on Metabee, I can tell when something's bothering you. Just spit it out." Metabee relaxed for a moment almost as if he was letting out a deep breath.

"I dunno, it's just that… how are you gonna have the time to get us all trained when the match is only a few days away?"

"With a time-machine?" Ikki said with a half smile.

"That's not what I meant! You haven't been focusing on robattles as much as you used to. You've been running off places without me and stuff. Don't tell me you're actually growing up or something?"

"Metabee, I'm not yet a teenager you know, I'm eleven."

"So what's going on? How about I say this: When I remember getting that headband placed around my head, I remember feeling like the medaforce was blocked. It was still there, I could feel it, but trying to use it hurt my back like crazy. Slowly every time I touched the medaforce it hurt less and less until eventually I felt I was almost there. But since you've been running away it's not even been there. Like I never had it."

Ikki stopped for a moment to try and think about what to say.

_I can't just tell him, he'll freak out! I've gotta think of some way around this. How was I to know that taking some time off would mess with Metabee's performance!_

Ikki closed his eyes for a moment then kneeled down and looked Metabee in the eyes.

"I'm sorry Metabee, it's not really a big secret to keep from you and I don't know why I'm keeping it a secret anyway. I guess if it was any other time it wouldn't be. It's just that if I told you now it might mess up your performance in the tournament. I can't let that happen."

"Well it's already messing up my performance!"

"Don't worry, for the days up to the tournament, I won't just disappear like normal. I'll actually go out and train with all of you guys. I need to practice the Shadow Sword again too so that I don't forget it. I'm sorry that I've been so secretive. Just until I can sort some things out."

"Sure sound like a teenager…"

"Metabee, do you trust me?"

Metabee jumped back looking offended.

"Of course I do! Do you _think _that I'm some evil conniving freaky bee witch medabot? Please!"

"Yeah I get it, but do you really trust me? Like deep down in your medal?"

Metabee sat down in an over-exaggerated thinking position as if he was 'the thinker' statue.

_I would trust Ikki with anything, even my life! But if I can't trust him with something as simple as a robattle… Ah my aching head!_

Suddenly a flash of memories flooded through Metabee. Not all in the right order, but all of them more powerful than life itself.

_. . ._

_Man, I can't even describe this pain! I clench my fists and drop a knee to the ground. I can barely see anything through my visor and I'm not sure I've got much more ammo left in my guns. I look up, my medaparts barely responding to me. I see a red flash but that's all. My hands start to shake as I realize what she's gonna do next. I try get up, just to be pushed back down by a weight on my shoulders. Snap it's Peppercat! She's on my freaking back for pity's sake! I would have shaken her off but I'm way too tired for that._

"_Peppercat, Finish it!" I hear Samantha scream. An unimaginable searing pain courses through my body as lightning shoots out of Peppercat's paws into my body. I'm not sure if it's pain or just numbness in my body but I can barely stand. Everything around me is fading away into blackness. Soon I'm gonna pass out aren't I? Whatever, it's not like I like being this guys medafighter. He'll probably toss me out or something._

"_Metabee, aim for the fountain!" I just barely hear Ikki say above the deafening roar of the crackling electricity by my sound receptors._

"_Argh… What?" I scream back at him._

"_Just do it!"_

_Haltingly, my hand points up at the fountain. It's now or never I guess. I let loose a barrage of machinegun bullets, bursting the fountain open. Water sprayed out of the fountain smashing into me and Peppercat. The weight instantly drops off of my shoulders as Peppercat collapses on the ground, just barely landing on four feet. Like a cat. Electricity sparks out of her medaparts as if she's electrocuting herself. I can't hear Ikki's next command as my receptors still feel like garbage but I know what he wants._

"_Missile launch!"_

_Two missiles blast out of my head cannons, erupting on the ground in front of Peppercat. As soon as the dust clears, I spot Peppercat's charred body and a golden medal ejecting out onto the ground. I'm tired, burnt, soaking wet and low on ammo, but I guess I won thanks to that Ikki guy…_

. . .

Just before the memory ended, Metabee saw a flash of the time he used the medaforce on Robo-Emperor, then everything faded away. He was back in the snow with Ikki. Ikki was waving his hand in front of Metabee's face.

"…Metabee, Metabee? Are you there?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me."

"How can I not worry about you? Your eyes went purple and you just blanked out."

"Whatever, I believe you okay? Let's just get out of the snow or something."

"Metabee…"

"Look pal, no emotional stuff. Let's just go!"

"Right!"

A gust of wind blew both Ikki and Metabee over. Metabee got back up enraged.

"Hey! What gives!?" Windstorm appeared right next to him with her arms folded. Queen Bee looked like she was sleeping in mid-air.

"Now that you're done playing kiss and make-up," Windstorm started. "I suggest that we get going for some serious training. You still kind of suck you know."

"I disagree with that comment," Ikki said. "But whatever, let's go!"

. . .

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, robots of all kind, this is it! There's no going back from this tournament! You've all trained and fought hard for it (especially the Select Corps who recovered all of the stolen medals that Team Renegade got, though not all of the bodies). But this is it! Win this or there's no tomorrow! Begin the Winter Festival's Spirit Cup!"

'The group' stepped forward into the festival grounds, with Henry's blaring megaphone sounding in the background. An archway opened up to the fairgrounds inside with red and green decorations all around it. Everyone they passed by was wearing some kind of festive outfit and always said 'Merry Christmas' even if they didn't normally celebrate it. What was once the extremely huge Rosewood private school Car park had now been transformed into a massive fairground with some of the stalls stretching as far out as the edge of the forest. Blue decorations lined the walls everywhere written "The Spirit Cup!" and green and red banners written "Merry Christmas". Most of the decorations were blue and white but many stalls had traditional Christmas designs. People were selling cakes, performing magic tricks, holding games and other such stuff. A Ferris wheel was even open with people riding and amazingly they had somehow constructed an entire rollercoaster called 'The Scream'. What looked like an exact replica of the World Robattle Stadium was placed far out at the top of a hill. Henry's voice could be heard coming from the stadium.

"We've got another fifteen minutes until the first match so it's fine if we're late," Leo said walking away to a random food stall. Rintarou had mysteriously popped up with the group licking an ice cream twice his size.

"Me and Kantaroth are gonna win this thing!" Rintarou said with a huge smile.

"Right on little man!" Kantaroth replied, polishing his guns. Everyone split up in different directions going there own ways leaving just Ikki's group.

"Well, it looks like I can go get a tune-up or something," Windstorm said floating off. "Your mechanics skills suck!"

"I'm just gonna do my own thing," Queen Bee said with a bored tone. "Training or something. Who knows? Maybe I'll find some cute boys. Hahahahaha!"

"Right… you do that…" Metabee said taking a step back after remembering being mind-controlled. "I'm just gonna stick here with Ikki if you don't mind…"

"Oh no you don't!" Queen Bee squirted a few drops of pink poison out of her stingers. The drops sprayed on Metabee's head. Metabee just stared at her annoyed.

"What's that supposed to do?" Metabee yelled. Queen Bee just giggled.

"Follow me, slave."

"I'm nobody's sla…" a drop of poison dripped into Metabee's head cannon and suddenly he shut up. "Yes ma'am! I'll do whatever you want to make you happy!"

"I thought so." Queen Bee floated off with Metabee's eyes showing digitized pink hearts.

_You can't be serious… _Ikki thought to himself. _Whatever, as long as they're back in fifteen minutes it doesn't matter what happens… Hey is that… Karin!_

Karin stood in the middle of the fairgrounds looking almost lost. Ikki ran over to her.

"Karin! Hey!" Karin looked at Ikki and smiled.

"Ikki! You made it! Are you here to win the Spirit Cup as well?"

"Yup! We're gonna win this! But where's Koji? You two are always together aren't you?" Though Ikki said that, he was kind of glad Koji wasn't there.

"Well I was with Koji but I kind of got lost and now I'm on my own."

"Well I can escort you to him if you want…" just then Koji's voice rang out across the grounds.

"Karin! Karin where have you been! I told you to stay close to me!" Koji sprinted over to Karin. "Never run away like that again. You always do that! And… Oh, Ikki. It's you. Anyway Karin, let's go. We shouldn't stay with the enemy…" Before Ikki could reply Koji grabbed Karin's hand and walked off quickly, far too classy to run. A Limo sped into the fairgrounds, almost running over Ikki. Karin and Koji stepped inside. "Next time we meet Ikki, it will be in the arena. So don't lose before the finals!" With that, the windows started to close, Karin waving goodbye. Ikki let out a sigh.

_Well, there goes Karin. Whatever._

Ikki looked around to find he was completely alone. He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to a stall on his left. An old sign written 'Berry Xmas' was hanging on the top and an assortment of muffins and cakes lined the table. The lady at the desk gave Ikki a warm smile as he approached.

"Are you also here for that tournament?" Ikki nodded his head. "I could tell, all of the kids want to see it. Say, you're Ikki Tenryou aren't you?"

"The one and only, though I don't feel much like it."

"Don't get so down before you've even started. You'll never win like that! A muffin always cheers me up when I'm down. You can have one for free if you like."

"Thanks." She gave him a smile like a mother and turned to face another customer. Ikki scanned the muffins briefly trying to decide then finally decided on the blueberry one. He reached out to grab It, but touched something else soft instead. A hand was already there, a girl's. Just like a scene out of a movie. Ikki looked up to see who owned it to see...

"Samantha?!" Both of them quickly jumped back immediately, Ikki tripping over a dustbin and Samantha bumping into a passerby, then punching him in the gut in anger. Luckily it was a kid from school so he just ran away in terror. "Samantha, what are you doing here?"

"What, you didn't think I'd qualify for the tournament?" Samantha smugly said.

"Um… about that…"

"**Don't answer that."**

"Ok."

"Now we've got that sorted, you're competing too right?"

"Yeah, I'm in the first match I think. Me and Metabee will demolish all the competition and win the whole tournament!"

After an incredibly painful punch in the face, Samantha kept talking as if nothing had even happened.

"Idiot, do you seriously think that you'll manage to beat me in the tournament? I've got a strategy."

Ikki got back up with a swollen cheek, barely able to speak.

"fwel ifsh ofiboufs fwoul fwin…"

"Speak up! I can't hear you!"

"Fworry…"

The shopkeeper looked at the two arguing and shook her head.

_That girl is scarier than the medabots themselves… It might be a bad idea to point out that their late, or where their standing…_

"Um… you two," the lady began speaking. "This stall is known as the 'stall of love' you know,"

Both Ikki and Samantha looked up confused. "You see, couples come here cause they say my muffins bring out inner feelings," she said getting bright shiny eyes as if remembering a first date. "So due to popular demand, every Christmas I hang a mistletoe on the store sign. Like where you're both standing under. You may want to check yourself."

They both looked up to see the mistletoe just hanging up there, as if taunting them.

"**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"**

All the way at the other side of the fair grounds, Metabee stopped massaging Queen Bee as soon as he heard that bloodcurdling scream of terror. His eyes momentarily flashed back green.

"I thought I heard Ikki's voice just then, as if he was forced to do something disgusting like kiss Samantha."

"Don't worry about it Metabee," Queen Bee said sweeter than sugar. "Just keep massaging and I'll give _you _a kiss!"

"Yes Queen Bee Chwaaaan!(Chan: a Japanese honorific put after the name of a girl. Metabee is exaggerating it to show how cute Queen Bee apparently is.)" Metabee's eyes flashed back to massive pink hearts bigger than his whole head. Meanwhile back in the 'stall of love', both Ikki and Samantha rapidly backed away from each other, both with faces burning red as if volcanoes were going off under their skin.

"N…no way!" Ikki said quickly.

"Not with Ikki! No! No way! Forget it! Maybe Koji… even Metabee! But not Ikki!" The shopkeeper just laughed at them.

"Lady, maybe you were bullying him so much because you secretly like him but you don't know how to express your **deep inner feelings, **and my muffins tried forcing them out."

"Lies!"

"And you young man, maybe you're just so bad with the girls that you didn't know how to react to it!"

"That's… I'm not bad with the girls… Am I? Anyway, that's not the point! It's Samantha!"

"What're you trying to say about me then?!" Samantha screamed back at him.

"Aha! You do want him to kiss you then!" the shopkeeper said triumphantly. Somehow, Samantha's face turned even brighter red, almost like it was an entirely different unheard of colour.

"Shut up!" And with that she stormed off. The shopkeeper smiled as she went.

"I guess I'll let you off this time, but only because you're late for the tournament."

"Geez thanks for letting me… Oh man I'm late!"

Just then a loud bullhorn sounded from the arena.

"Ikki Tenryou and Metabee, please step into the arena in fifteen seconds. I repeat, Ikki Tenryou and Metabee, please step into the arena in ten seconds. Nine seconds. Eight. Seven…"

Ikki shot off towards the arena, Metabee was already waiting for him by the door, somehow breaking free of the spell when he heard the announcement.

"Come on Ikki, let's go!"

"Right!" Metabee transformed into action mode and Ikki jumped on his back. "Wait Metabee, where's Queen Bee?"

"Queen Bee? Oh, she's a bit busy…"

**Flashback…**

"Ah Metabee, massage a little lower please!" The announcement suddenly rang out across the fairgrounds.

"Ikki Tenryou and Metabee, please step into the arena in fifteen seconds…" Metabee's eyes flashed bright green as he came to.

_Ikki!_

"Hey, Queen Bee, look over there, it's a cute medabot!" Queen Bee jerked around quickly in excitement. An over-armoured Churlybear was peeking around a corner at Queen Bee. Realizing he'd been spotted, he quickly ducked away and ran, too fat to float.

"Metabee, I don't see him… Metabee?" Queen Bee turned around to see a note on the chair. "_To Queen Bee: I can't believe you didn't notice that a cute medabot in yellow armour and awesomeness was right next to you. Peace out! Metabee."_ A picture of a KBT type sticking its tongue out was all that remained. Queen Bee crumpled the note just before screaming.

. . .

"Three, two, one…"

"Wait!" Metabee and Ikki collapsed through the doors into the stadium. "I'm ready to robattle!" Henry dressed in a similar outfit to Ikki looked up at Ikki. The arena completely disgraced the gym in Riverview, being exactly like the old Robattle Stadium with half the stadium filled.

"And here they are! Ladies and Gentleman, Ikki… wait…" Someone ran up to Henry and whispered something to him. "I'm sorry Ikki, you were one second too late. You should have said _ready _when you barged in."

"What!?"

"Just joking! No, your fight has been postponed. There was an error somewhere and instead the first match is Samantha versus Zuru!"

Samantha stood up with a confident look on her face. Zuru stood up with a less than confident look. Tyrellbeetle stood up clenching his fists.

"Zuru, are we gonna use _that_?" Tyrellbeetle asked enthusiastically.

"No. It won't work here. You'll be way too slow and you still can't even move it. I'll use Roks instead."

"Come on, just let me try! I know I can do it!"

"Not this time."

"Then I'll do it," Roks said. "It's the same type as me so it should be easy.

"No way Roks," Tyrellbeetle shouted back at him. "you can't move it either! I'd be better off… Oi! Zuru! Don't leave without me!"

Zuru was already at the arena. Tyrellbeetle jumped down to the arena. Zuru just smiled at him.

"I guess you won't leave until you battle right?"

"Right!"

Samantha pushed a button on her medawatch. "Transport Puttycat."

A blue flash lit the arena and there appeared the red and cream cat medabot. Zuru pressed a button on his medawatch.

"Transport, medaparts." Tyrellbeetle's whole body flashed blue as all his old parts went back home. New medaparts replaced them, flashing onto him. As the light died down, everyone 'oooeed' and 'aaaed' and of course, 'wwooooowwwed'. A large green medabot a whole two heads taller than Tyrellbeetle stood in his place looking almost like what a tank would be come to life, but it was still a lot more slim than the original Grandslam. His massive pincers that were on his back were instead now on his left arm like a shield and green instead of blue. A huge sword the size of Zuru was strapped to his back. His legs had shin guards with the Jamaican flag painted on them. The data for the medabot flashed on everyone's medawatches.

**Gigaton (or Grandslam mark II): Zuru's workshop/ Extreme Tech**

**Medafighter: Zuru**

**Specialty: Giga slam**

**Medal type: Ghost**

**Signature: Unknown**

. . .

Samantha gritted her teeth.

_Darn it! When did he get that thing running? Are those Kilobot parts or something?_

Data for Samantha's medabot appeared as well.

**Puttycat: Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Samantha**

**Specialty: Action mode**

**Medal type: Cat medal**

**Signature: Fury swipes**

"Then it's agreed!"

All of the lights in the arena shut off leaving only two spotlights shining high above their heads. Where the two spotlights crossed over eachother, a massive ring of holly was slowly being lowered with Mr. Referee inside it. "I officially declare this a submission robattle! I shall act as referee. Me, Mr. Referee. Medafighters ready? Medabots, rooooooooobatttllllleeeee!"

"Go Puttycat! Action mode!" Puttycat sprinted forward on four feet like a real cat, her helmet sliding over her face making it look like a true cats.

"Gigaton, stand your ground!" Gigaton remained motionless, only raising his horns up as a shield. Putty cat jumped forward transforming back to normal as she did so, clawing at the shield. Her claws clashed against the horns, only to leave a tiny scratch. She jumped back quickly, doing somersaults as she landed back in front of Samantha.

"What?! Samantha, I barely scratched him!" Puttycat screamed. Zuru frowned as he saw Tyrellbeetle or Gigaton.

"Are you alright Gigaton?"

"Just fine boss!" Gigaton replied. "Though these things weigh a ton!"

"Two actually," Zuru said with a smile.

"You were joking, right?" Ignoring him, Zuru started frowning again.

"That attack shouldn't have even scratched your armour. I wonder if I put enough armour into it…"

"You mean it's not finished?!" Samantha screamed in disbelief.

"Alright Gigaton, Gigaslam now!" Gigaton moved his right arm slowly over to his sword and gripped the handle.

"Feel my roar!" with an insane burst of speed and power, he almost teleported in front of Puttycat and swung the sword hard down on the concrete floor, cleaving a slicing path through it. Puttycat barely had time to roll out to the side, dodging the devastating attack, but almost as if she was pushed by a giant invisible hammer, she flew backwards head over heels to the edge of the arena. Puttycat got back up on shaky legs.

"I'm okay boss… I'm okay…"

**Warning. 50% damage to all medaparts.**

_Was that just the wind from his attack?! What kind of force was behind that?_

Gigaton re-sheathed his sword with a smug look.

"Puttycat, hand-to-hand combat!" Puttycat shook off her pain and sprinted off like lightning after Gigaton. "Use the storm combo!" Puttycat jumped into the air and spun around like a spinning top. Her claws extended at least a foot longer than normal and she was nothing more than a red blur as she came down, smashing onto Gigaton who could do nothing but hold the shield over his head. The ground beneath his feet cracked in craters as the force of the blow pushed him to the ground. Gigaton pushed Puttycat off his shield like a rocket, sending her crashing into the roof. She dropped back down to the arena floor, crumpling on the ground. The ceiling had a medabot shaped dent in it left over.

**75% damage to all medaparts.**

Gigaton held his horns behind him, holding onto the edges as if he were holding a discus, then flung it with all his might at Puttycat. The horns swirled on their way like a tornado, tearing up the ground beneath them. With true cat-like reflexes, Puttycat rolled on her back and using her feet, kicked the discus up into the air. The discus curved through the air and flew back to Gigaton's arm. Gigaton gave Puttycat what looked like a smile.

"Not bad… alright I lie. You're terrible at this."

"Shut up!" Samantha and Puttycat replied at once. "Alright Puttycat, we need to remove that shield." Gigaton took a weighty step forward, sending shockwaves through the ground as his foot touched the ground. "Go into action mode and overcome him with speed."

"Gigaton, don't let your guard down. Wait for her to get nice and close."

Puttycat transformed and leaped for Gigaton with her claws extended. Gigaton brushed her aside with the flat part of his blade. The sword smashed right into her, smashing her into the ground like a meteor. She got up quickly, ignoring the bruises and sped around him to his back. "Now Gigaton! Grandslam attack!" Gigaton didn't even bother trying to turn around in time, instead leaping into the air while unsheathing his sword, swinging it around his body then down like a hammer, using its momentum to speed up his fall. The blade hit the ground sending massive fissures in all directions on impact and blowing a powerful gust of wind out as well. Puttycat covered her face as the wind almost bowled her over again.

"Don't stop now Puttycat, finish it!"

Puttycat pressed on now in normal form and before Gigaton could even move again, slid under his left arm and violently pulled the horns off his arm. Still running with the momentum, Puttycat turned around and putting everything behind the blow, smashed the horns against Gigaton's head. The horns and Gigaton's head smashed into multiple pieces, exploding in a bright flash of green and red. Puttycat didn't even have time to leap back before the explosion knocked her off the arena and into Samantha. The sound of a clinking metal filled the stadium.

**100% damage to head medapart. Functions ceased.**

"Functions ceased! And the winner is, Puttycat!"

Samantha let out a deep breath.

"Man that was way too close!" Samantha said, pushing Puttycat off of her. Puttycat's eyes showed confused black swirls in them.

"Is it over boss?"

"Yes Puttycat, you did it. Well done."

Zuru walked up to the arena and lifted Gigaton's head to inspect the damage.

"So it might have a tough exterior, but once you get past that it's softer than a Tom-cat huh? I'll remember that." He placed the medal in his medawatch and walked back to the crowd. Henry concluded the match as Samantha's victory and went on to announcing the next match. Samantha stuck her hands in her pockets and started walking out the stadium. Puttycat followed in action mode as if she were a real cat. She was even purring like one too. Ikki and Metabee looked at Zuru in surprise.

"Wow. Zuru lost. Who would've guessed it?" Ikki said. "Anyway, I've gotta go get the others before our match. Coming with?" Metabee didn't bother answering. He just got out of his chair and walked on after Ikki. Ikki caught up to Samantha and Puttycat. "Hey Samantha! Great job in your last robattle!"

"Yeah thanks. Good luck to you though. You're up against Akkia first. It won't be easy."

"I should know. She's not a person I'd want to robattle."

"And anyway, what's up with you two? You have the same last name don't you? Tenryou. Is she your cousin or something?" Ikki shook his head.

"She's my big sister."

"You had a sister?"

"Yup. She doesn't live with my parents for some reason though. I mean now she has college so it makes sense but I've never really been sure before then. I guess it's cause…" Samantha suddenly grabbed Ikki by the collar and pulled him behind a stall. Before he could say anything she whacked him on the head to silence him.

"Shut up! Look over there. Don't you see who that is?" Ikki followed where she was pointing. Sure enough, there was standing the one face who none of them could ever forget. A kid in a blue shirt and green shorts, with blue hair covering his eyes. By his side was a beat up looking Zorin.

"That kid! What's he doing here?!" Metabee whispered.

"That's what I wanna find out," Samantha replied rolling her sleeves up. She stepped out from behind her cover and stormed over to him. The kid looked like he was searching for someone in the crowd, scanning them all for something. His gaze met Samantha's and an unnerving smile met his lips.

"Ah, you're here too. I'm surprised you haven't come back looking for us for answers or anything of the sort."

"Zip it spinach head, what're you doing here?" Samantha said with venom. "Get lost before I get rid of you myself!" The kid chuckled.

"I see you've been busy getting a new medabot. I must ask though, have you seen Ikki Tenryou by any chance?"

"I'm right here," Ikki said with a menacing tone. "What do you want?"

"Don't worry, I just want to test something. I'll be gone soon... Zorin?" Zorin's horns flashed multiple colours before finally stopping on black. "Samantha, I'm going to unlock a latent power inside of you. Stay calm and don't panic and you shall not be harmed."

"You're going to do what?" before she could protest, Zorin roughly grabbed her hand and started glowing with a strange black and purple light. Before Puttycat could do anything he quickly extended a foot and kicked her hard in the gut, ejecting her medal instantly. Samantha tried pulling her hand away but Zorin held on all the tighter as she pulled. A searing heat coursed through her body through the arm as if a stream of lava was flowing through her veins. She actually screamed as her whole body felt as if it lit up in flames. No. It _did _light up in green flames all over her, but she wasn't even burning. In fact, it didn't hurt at all. It was the absolute terror of what was happening to her that hurt. She leaped backwards in fright, but Zorin didn't let go. Ikki watched on in horror not knowing what to do.

_What in the… he's going to kill Samantha! What do I do, what do I… Oh come on Ikki, shouldn't it be obvious? They're going to kill one of your friends!_

Ikki felt a bubbling explosive rage course through his whole body, almost like when he first found Samantha inside the main saucer all those months ago.

"**Don't you touch her you creep!" **Ikki leaped forward and wrenched Zorin's hand off of Samantha's, tossing him to the side in the process. Zorin brought up his sword ready to defend himself.

"Ikki, I told you I wouldn't hurt her," the kid said slightly annoyed. "Why won't you listen? Check for yourself." Sure enough, as soon as Zorin let go the flames died out as if evaporating. Ikki really didn't care anymore.

"Shut up! That wasn't even safe! Are you trying to set the whole fairgrounds on fire or something?" By now a crowd had gathered to see what was happening. Samantha was kneeling on the floor breathing heavily, clenching her fists. Metabee was already by Ikki's side, just waiting for the go.

"Ikki, are you challenging me again?"

"Who cares if I am? Metabee, seeker missiles!"

"I've been waiting for a rematch with you Zorin, missile launch!" Metabee pointed his head cannons at Zorin and let loose a barrage of missiles. Zorin sprinted past all of them like they were nothing and leaped high into the air, spinning as he did so. His sword came crashing down right next to Metabee as he tried dodging to the side. Metabee kicked with all his might at Zorin's head, but Zorin just leaped back to his medafighter. His horns turned blue and instantly afterwards a force field went up in front of him.

"Not again. Metabee, demolition mode!" Metabee transformed into his tank form, transporting the extra parts and aimed at the Zorin. A massive blue energy blast erupted from the cannons, obliterating the shields and burning all of Zorin's medaparts.

"Zorin, medaforce!" Zorin began glowing bright green with energy.

_No way, I can't stop it yet! But I have to. If I can't, then he'll take Samantha again. I can't allow that! __**I won't!**_

Another bright green flash lit up the area. Ikki turned to look at Metabee. Metabee's eyes flashed a brighter green than normal. Energy swirled all around him, but it wasn't in an all consuming hurricane, it was a silent but deadly rage.

"Ikki, I don't know what you're doing but it's working. Keep fueling my soul with yours and we'll hit him with everything we've got!" Ikki's medaforce registered the changes instantly.

**Beetle metamorphosis. Larvae stage reached. Congratulations. Medaforce type one, Ultrashot active.**

"**Dude… I rock…"**

"**Do it Metabee! Use the medaforce!"**

"**It's time to kiss your bot goodbye! MEDAFORCE!"**

Both medabots unleashed their ultimate attacks, the waves slamming into eachother like the crashing waves, and yet Metabee's completely swamped Zorin's in split seconds, destroying every medaparts in one go.

**150% damage. Functions ceased.**

The Zorin toppled over with his medaparts smoking. His medapart looked at Ikki understandingly.

"I see. I guess her power is already leaking into you to affect you so much. Well, nice talking to you. Cheers." And with that, it was almost as if he disappeared. Ikki let out a sigh and gave Metabee a thumbs up. Metabee gave one back before collapsing on the floor. Ikki turned to Samantha again just to see her passed out on the ground.

. . .

Samantha opened her eyes slowly to see a dimly lit room with decorations everywhere. The first person she saw was Ikki, leaning over her holding up a few fingers.

"Samantha… listen closely… fingers… holding up?"

"Eleven?"

Samantha's vision focused again. She sat up and looked around. She was in a warm cozy looking room, almost like an inn or something with sofas and a table in the middle of the room. No, that couldn't be right. "Hey Ikki, where is this?"

"That stall owner lady from the morning's house. She helped me carry you back here after you passed out. You slept through most of Christmas!"

"Wait, have you been here the whole time?"

"Yup. Except for when I went for my match. Don't worry too much though. Staying here wasn't so bad."

The lady from the stall entered just then and smiled at them.

"Aww… he gave up his time to see the girl he loves. Isn't that sweet?" Ikki's face turned bright red.

"It's not like that at all! It's just… I wanted to make sure you were safe. That's all." The lady just smiled again then pointed up at the ceiling. "Mistletoe. No backing out now." Both Ikki and Samantha turned bright red.

"Lady why do you keep doing this?" Samantha asked. The lady just smiled. Samantha took a deep breath. Ikki looked at her nervously with rosy red cheeks.

"Hold up, you're a friend and all but I don't think…" Samantha quickly grabbed Ikki's face and pulled it closer to her own. Ikki had gone brighter than a tomatoe. "Uh… Samantha…" Samantha giggled almost girl like. She quickly pecked him on the cheek and let him go.

"What, you were hoping for a proper kiss?"

"No!"

"Well me neither, so let's keep it that way!" She quickly jumped out of the couch and stormed over to the door. Just before leaving, she turned and faced Ikki. "You can keep that kiss as thanks or something. Oh, and another thing. Merry Christmas Ikki!"


	19. Freeze! This is a skyjacking?

Schools back once more with vengeance! Anyway, I guess I've gotta update this so here goes nothing. I was hoping to get a New Year's chapter up but that obviously hasn't worked out. Anyway, I guess this is the start of the next important point in the story so read it well. I'm not gonna say much on the winter tournament cause it wasn't that big compared to the stuff up next! And oh snap I just noticed a mistake in translating something in a previous chapter again! Anyway, I guess I'm not really scared of people noting my flaws. Earlier on, there was a point when I said Moku meant cloud in Japanese as Queen Bee kept calling Windstorm that. I got the word from this anime, One-Piece where people can get certain powers by eating certain types of 'Akuma's fruit'. Like the main character ate the Gomu-Gomu fruit which is the rubber fruit and stuff. Someone ate the Moku-Moku or Cloud-Cloud fruit which lets them turn into smoke. I only remembered too late that 'moku' is cloud BACKWARDS (in Japanese Kanji so it's not quite backwards when you spell it in English). So cloud in Japanese is 'Kumo' and not 'Moku'. I'll probably keep calling Windstorm moku-chan as I'm used to it but whatever. Enjoy this chap.

Too awesome to die in a blazing 2012 inferno of destruction, yes, This is the real deal presents:

This-is-_SPIRIT!... Yes Spirit!... Yep, it's... SPIRIT!_

Chapter 19 I think? Hmm...: Freeze! This is a skyjacking?

The night sky exploded in a dazzling array of colours as fireworks exploded in the air, blooming like exotic flowers. It was almost like the sky was crying tears of joy as each spark lit up and dripped bright burning tears. The whole world had gotten through a new year and now had to face more challenges in the next. The whole city wasn't going to sleep tonight, nor the whole country for that matter, for every single building in site had bright lights lighting up high above them, and in the buildings themselves were people celebrating the turn of one year to the next. Even major corporate buildings had been closed down for the night and had employees sharing drinks with each other, and anyone who was still working was celebrating with their co-workers. Ikki stood on the balcony of a mountaintop resort privately reserved by Dr. Aki overlooking the city below. The cool night breeze ruffled his hair gently as he stared at the fireworks high above his head with his back leaning against the iron railings.

_It's been a long time since I first started robattling. I'm no longer the same kid I used to be. I'm a lot stronger, I think I'm a bit smarter, but most importantly, I've gotten a whole bunch of new friends that will stick by me no matter what. Of course, there's Erika. She always messes up my image with her crazy stories and giving away important secrets, but I don't really care about that. She might get me into messes, but she always gets me out. There's also Koji. Sure, the first time we met we were bitter rivals, but in the end, even if he won't admit it himself, we're still friends. Rintarou too, with all his energy and a lot of guts. The Screws might have seemed like pests at first, but even they are a part of the team. Ginkai, Zuru, Nae and even Kam all stuck with me from the kilobot saga right until now. Karin may seem small and helpless, but it's her good spirit that keeps us all going when all is lost. There's also Leo he really did save the day in a sense, DC too with his larger-than-life personality. Even my sister pulled through when we really needed her and I know she'll pull through again and again. But of course, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Metabee. I guess all the thanks should go to the medabots really. Everyone's gotten so much stronger now, but is it enough for what we're now facing..._

"Hey Ikki! They're gonna finish all the food if you stay on your own any longer!" Ikki stood up straight, casting one last glance at the fireworks before walking back to Metabee who was holding a can of oil. The pair walked back inside the cosy living room to the rest of the group. The air in the room was thick with an insane racket with loud music playing in the background. DC and Sakura were practically fighting over the sound systems to put their favourite songs on, both having kicked the DJ off. Rintarou was practically running on the walls in excitement, Karin was passing around food, Henry was slumped on the couch in front of the plasma screen TV complaining about being totally exhausted and everyone else was scattered all over the place doing their own thing. Koji and Ginkai were on the rooftops in the middle of a battle with Zuru as the ref with Gorem 2 and Roks there watching. Leo was pretty much just chilling with Akkia and their medabots and Miss Nae was in the kitchen cooking up more food. Spyke, Sloan and Samantha were in a different room all together getting themselves into all kinds of trouble.

"Oh boy, this place is gonna bill us for all the damage isn't it?" Ikki stated worried that Dr. Aki would never give them another favour again.

"Don't worry about it Ikki," said Metabee. "We're meant to enjoy ourselves! And besides, that last tournament really stressed me out to the limit. Just chill."

"Yeah, that tournament was serious. I can't believe I made it so far."

"That fight against Akkia... that was another level." Before Ikki could comment about winning or losing the tournament, the front door opened with Dr. Aki stepping out holding the tip of his old musty brown fedora. Everyone froze on the spot and stared at him, Rintarou somehow freezing on the very tip of his toes. Dr. Aki nervously looked around, trying to ignore all the eyes on him.

"Don't stare at me like that, it feels weird!" he shouted sinking deeper into his coat as if trying to hide. "I just came to deliver a letter that was meant for you guys. Don't worry; it's not bad news or anything." Everyone relaxed. Dr. Aki strolled into the room grumbling under his breath. "Geez, like I'm the Grim Reaper or something. I should have just e-mailed the letter to them or something. Nobody bothers to actually _send envelopes _nowadays so why would it matter? Seriously." Everyone crowded around Dr. Aki to see the letter. Dr. Aki cleared his throat.

"_Dear medafighters:_

_We of the BBA sent one of our senior members, Mr. Karnab, to one of your latest tournaments recently and noticed quite a few spectacular matches. He returned and showed us the video recordings of the matches and we feel that what we've seen is exactly what we're looking for. Let me explain. The Beyblade Association or BBA have been trying to host another World Tournament not just for Bladers, but for all of the young tamers and Medafighters and Bladers of the world to see what happens. It was part of the research we were doing on Bit-Beasts when it became quite clear to us that there were other objects that held Bit-Beasts that could release them in the same way a Beyblade did. It was fairly obvious that medals were one of those objects but there may be more. Of course, wherever Bit-beasts are, there are always people drawn to them and they are always drawn to people. Through the Bit-beasts, Beyblading was able to become a worldwide phenomenon, bringing together more people than any other sport! Of course, Beyblading has now fallen in popularity to robattles in recent years but even you will have noticed that your community is not as close-knit as it should be. There may be other sports where similar things have happened. That's where the MDC comes in.'"_

Dr. Aki took a deep breath.

"Don't just stop there!" DC screamed.

"Yeah, keep reading!" Spyke exclaimed.

"Stopping in the middle of the most important bit... how cruel, Dr. Aki!" Akkiana said, her voice filled with disappointment.

"Just hold on! I have to catch my breath!" Dr. Aki cleared his throat again. Everyone leaned closer to listen.

"'_We feel that we here at the BBA can link up with the MDC and a few other corporations such as 'MAGAMI' and host a massive tournament touring the whole world. You would get to tour the whole world and meet all kinds of people. It would be an amazing experience for you all._

_Now I'm sending you this to invite you medafighter to compete in this tournament. We found your performances particularly impressive. This will not be like the normal WRC where you just represent your country; this will be a full scale competition to see who has the best team in the world regardless of where you're from, but of course it's always nicer to go with your home country. Anyway, you've all got high enough points in the rankings to qualify for the tournament so you can all come so on the whole, I'll leave you guys to come up with your own teams. Please note however that I'll pay for the entire trip for only five of you. You could say that you five impressed Mr. Karnab, and so we've offered to pay for you. The rest of you will have to provide your own transport or get sponsors. You'd best be getting yourselves prepared. You're in for battles like you've never seen before. There will be insanely strong medafighters that aren't even registered in the rankings for their countries, and the bladers will have skills you didn't think possible. Do _not _underestimate them just because they use spinning tops instead of medabots. Their power is unimaginable! Either way, good luck to you four! I hope you enjoy it,_

_Akkiana,_

_Koji,_

_Leo,_

_Ikki,_

_and Samantha._

_Good luck!_

_Best regards from: Mr Dickenson.'"_

Dr. Aki stared at the note for a few more seconds as if trying to figure something out. Ikki and Metabee both jumped sky high, their heads scraping against the ceiling.

"We made it Metabee! We qualified for the tournament!"

"Yeah! Just one question though. What's the tournament even called?!"

Everyone turned to look at Dr. Aki for more answers. Dr. Aki rested his chin on his knuckles in thought.

_This is odd... it seems that Dickenson knows more about this than I thought if he's bothering to pay for her flight even... but I can't understand what he's thinking! Placing her in the line of fire is not a good idea. He's either finally lost it or he seriously knows what he's talking about... Huh?_

"Was someone asking me something?" Dr. Aki said, only just realizing all the expectant stares that were directed at him.

"What's this tournament called?" DC asked. "There's no point telling us we've won when we don't know what we've got."

"I don't know. This is in a sense a combination of the World Robattle Championship and the World Beyblade Competition but there may be other similar sports involved that we've never heard of so it could be anything. It looks like that senile old man forgot to even tell us what this thing is called."

"Who is Mr. Dickenson anyway?" Ikki asked with a confused look on his face. "Do you know him Dr. Aki or..."

"WHAT?!" DC, Leo, Chrome, Leo's Blackbeetle, Rintarou, Kantaroth, Windstorm, Metabee and Saikachis all screamed at once. "How can you possibly _not _know who Mr. Dickenson is?" Rintarou screamed at him.

"Every Medafighter in the _world _knows Mr. Dickenson!" Leo yelled, which made him seem even more terrifyingly tall than normal.

"If it wasn't for him, robattling would be nowhere near as popular as it is now!" Saikachis said.

"Not even tin-can himself could be so stupid, and he's lost his memories!" Windstorm said with disappointment.

"Ikki, I don't have all my memories and _I've _heard of the guy. Don't be a fool." Metabee shook his head sadly. "He's a lost cause..."

"Mr. Dickenson was one of the most well respected presidents of the Beyblade association ever, and is definitely the most well remembered." DC started, his eyes shining with pride and respect, his red hat seeming as if it were on fire. "He was the man responsible for the huge popularity increase in Beyblading, and it's also rumoured that he formed the legendary Beyblade team, 'The Bladebreakers'. He also helped kick start the career of robattling for us medafighters. Robattling has been popular since it started, but it was nothing compared to the far simpler, less complicated and faster paced Beyblading phenomenon that was sweeping the world. When the BBA was temporarily disbanded and he was just an old man who sat in a park, he came across a couple of medafighters and after learning how the game worked, he set them up in a local competition against the Bladebreakers, now remembered as 'G-Revolution'. Naturally, the Beybladers won being all time legends but only by the skin of their teeth! The people who witnessed the match said it was the most epic battle of all time and from there robattling spread! Now it's Beyblading that's less popular instead! Mr. Dickenson doesn't seem to mind however and is now working as the president of the BBA again to try and help medafighters and bladers alike. Do you understand that neither you nor I would be medafighters now if it weren't for him? You would never have met Metabee and I would never have met Chrome!

"So we owe all our thanks to Mr. Dickenson. But wait, there's more! Nobody is sure of his true age but one thing is certain, Mr. Dickenson is even older than Dr. Aki!"

"No way! For real?!" Ikki asked in disbelief.

"Yes for real," he continued. "He could be considered a Dr. Aki before Henry was even born! And his health is as good as ever! He gets older by the second but his body doesn't seem to notice! He's known as a legend to Beybladers and Medafighters alike and every team he's come into contact with has excelled! The Bladebreakers, the Majestics, the BBA All-Stars... all of them just examples of them! Team Kenya... Team South Africa... China... Them to and they are medafighters!"

Ikki could feel stars shining in his eyes in inspiration.

"Wow! I want a Beyblade too now! I wanna meet Mr. Dickenson. I can't wait!"

"That's the spirit Ikki!" DC was getting even more hyped up. "Roar with the flaming hot passion of all the past bladers and medafighter! Whrooaar!"

"Whroooaaar!"

"Whroooaaarr!"

"Wwhroooooaaaarrr!"

"Will you both just shut up!" A voice screamed. Two fists smashed into the backs of Ikki and DC's heads as Akkiana punched them down to the floor. They both lay still in complete silence. Dr. Aki cleared his throat.

"Anyway... thank you for that passionate in detail profile on Mr. Dickenson. I guess... Anyway, yes I do know Mr. Dickenson myself. We often meet up when we want to help each other out with things. Did you know that Phoenix was designed by the same members of the BBA who made the Dranzer Beyblade? Anyway, not important. I got a message from him myself and he said you'll be leaving within the next month or two. We've been planning this for a while now so don't let us down! Anyway, in the end it really doesn't affect me much. I'm a researcher so any data I get will do, but I'm still rooting for the home team. But Mr. Dickenson definitely wants to see what you guys can do so you can't let him down. Anyway, next month so you better get prepared. Don't underestimate them no matter what. Good luck!"

The others split up to go back to whatever they were doing at first or to the roof to practice strategies. DC screamed about having to get back to his team back home and ran out the door without a second thought.

"He does know he can't run all the way too Africa right?" Akkia said before walking with her hands behind her head up to the roof to see the last of the fireworks. Dr. Aki tipped is brown hat and walked out the door. Ikki walked out to the balcony again and stared out at the night sky, the fireworks still lighting it up in dazzling flashes. The door behind him creaked open then shut again. Footsteps sounded behind him. Ikki looked to his left to see Samantha staring up at the fireworks with him. The lights from the fireworks were reflecting off of her eyes as she stared up at the sky. She had an unreadable expression on her face.

"Thanks."

"Hmm?" Ikki asked confused.

"Thanks. I mean, I never said thanks for back then, when you saved me that time. And that was ages ago. I guess I should have said it back then but I guess better late than never."

"Don't worry about it. All of us were trying to rescue you so it's not just me who deserves the thanks. Anyway we really shouldn't be hung up on the past too much. We got picked to move into that huge tournament so we should be smiling like this!" Ikki smiled a huge over exaggerated cartoon smile from ear to ear.

"Yo Ikki!" Metabee screamed from inside. "Robattle! Robattle time, let's go!"

"Right, just wait up for me!" Ikki ran back inside before they could share another word and quickly up the steps. Samantha stared up at the stars and fireworks for a few more seconds before running up after him to watch the match.

. . .

"Whoa... are we seriously riding in this thing?"

"We can afford this?"

"I call shotgun!"

"I don't think you're allowed in the front seat of a plane."

"Why not? It's our own private jet and I can't go in the cockpit?"

"Who's ever heard of a munchkin like you running around in the cockpit of a plane?"

"Are you sure we're riding in this?"

The gang stood at the airport grounds staring in complete and total amazement at the plane they would all be riding in. The jet was surprisingly large for a private jet (or rather, fat), having two pairs of wings tied together like a bi-plane instead of one pair. The underside of the plane was completely black as if it were asphalt but the rest of the plane looked like it was made of several sliding metal sheets that overlapped each other and they were a deep blue. There were four jet engines on the wings and one massive engine at the back underneath the tail. Its nose wasn't rounded, but instead was hooked like a bird's beak. There was a purple band around the middle written _BBA_. On the other side sort of spray painted on was _'MAGAMI rulez!' _and on top of that even was _'MDC 4 lyf!'_. There was nobody else who had scheduled for a plane at that time so the jet could only be their flight. DC and Sakura looked up at it with wide teary eyes.

"I wanna fly it..." DC said almost drooling.

"I wanna own it..." Sakura said, struggling to hold in her excitement. Sakura straightened up and cleared her throat. "Anyway, I'm not coming with you guys sadly, my dad just told me to escort you this far and act like a voluntary security guard. He said that he didn't feel like letting me go across the world just to see some robattle competition without him. He just gave me permission to use a redbuster if necessary but otherwise I'm just waving you off."

"A redbuster?" Ikki asked confused.

"It's like an emergency command that only high ranking members of the Select Corps can use, meaning normally, not me. It gives the caller permission to call seven fighter jets, two bombers and five battle helicopters and when on sea you call ten battleships and five warships. So far there has been nobody in history who has seen a redbuster in action against them and survived, but the amount of resources and money it uses is extreme, and the damage they cause is beyond reason. When Medaropollis was attacked, a redbuster was called out to take down those five super strong medabots. They didn't even last thirty seconds after that..."

"Is it really safe to entrust you with that kind of power?" Koji asked warily. "You might use it on a shoplifter or something dumb like that."

"Don't worry. My dad will take the responsibility for any damage I cause."

"That's not reassuring in the least!"

Ikki took the first step onto the plane then faced Dr. Aki.

"Are you sure it's okay to get on without our parents?"

"Don't worry. I contacted your parents already, as long as I'm with you or any other responsible adult, its okay. They should come and join you later on a different flight but for now just enjoy the ride."

Ikki looked back at everyone who he would leave behind. Karin, Rintarou, Erika, Nae, Zuru, and Ginkai all stood there waving them off. Everone else was still in the terminal waving them off. Leaving them behind, they entered the jet, and from there would enter the world.

"Hey wait!"

Everyone turned around to the source of the voice. Three teenagers ran over to them from the terminal, with guards calling for them to stop. A Kuwagata type medabot was busy talking to the guards trying to explain that they weren't assassins or something like it. The three teenagers stopped before them gasping for breath. The leader of the three, a girl, stood upright. "Hey you, we still haven't paid you back, Samantha."

"It's you!" Samantha screamed, recognizing them instantly. "Chiboring or whatever."

"It's Chidori! That's right, leader of Team Fiyun, and don't you forget us!"

Everybody looked uneasily at the three troublemakers who caused them problems during the battle for medaropolis.

"Should they really be here?" Akkiana asked, unconsciously cracking her knuckles.

"Patience, I don't think these guys are capable of much." Dr. Aki said going inside the plane.

"Here to settle the score or something?" Samantha asked. "Cause I'm more than ready for a robattle anytime." Chidori held up the palm of her hand.

"Calm down, you don't even know what we're going to pay you in. And for one thing, it's definitely not robattles. Unless it's Henry, I don't really care. We're here cause what we owe you is… an apology." Samantha's eyebrow raised.

"You're actually capable of apologizing? I didn't think that was possible. You do realize that you helped destroy my medabot right?" Samantha's voice stayed remarkably cold but there was a slight tremble in it that was more scary than anything, as if you were teetering on the lip of a volcano on the brink of eruption.

"I know it's not the easiest thing to swallow down but get this. We're just another ragtag gang like you, and while we were related in the attack, we didn't think it would turn out into a full scale war like that. We were just hired by these two guys, some freaky blue-haired kid and an even creepier girl. They told us to run around getting medals, specifically rare ones like Space Medafighter X's, for a fee of course. Picking on you guys was just a bit of fun on the way. We didn't know that there would be an all out assault, we don't even know what it was for! I guess we shouldn't have been stealing medals in the first place an you losing your medabot was partially our fault as well. If we hadn't attacked you first, Peppercat might not have blown up when… that happened."

"Is that all you've got to say?" Samantha said, tapping her foot impatiently until she would leave.

"That's not all," Zoro said, rummaging around in his pocket for something. Out of it, he pulled what looked like a metal spinning top and out of the other pocket were a long plastic cord and a small box like object. "Before we became Team Fiyun, back when we were little kids, we were part of a beyblading crew called the Bladesharks. We weren't really any good at Beyblading and we were still up to no good, but it didn't really matter back then. But one day, somebody came with an old school Beyblade and mopped the floor with us in seconds. And the thing it, it was a similar model to the one that beat the leader of the original Bladesharks years ago. We felt so humbled by the defeat that we even bought a replica of the blade that beat us. Once we took up robattling, we kept the blade as a reminder of our old team, and as a goal on how strong we would get. I guess now we don't deserve to keep this as we can't truly say we're medafighters after this. You can keep this guy as a memento of when we met." Zoro tossed the blade at Samantha who caught it with a backhand grip. He handed her the other equipment. Samantha stared for a moment at the Beyblade she held In her hand.

It was mainly white with red lines going around the sides, probably heavily customized from the look of it. There was a metal kind of disc between the base of the blade and the attack ring at the top. The top attack ring had four red blades sticking out in the shape of dragon's heads, each with yellow eyes. There was a circle in the middle of the Beyblade.

"You might not need it, you are a medafighter and not a Beyblader but we hope it'll bring you as much luck as it brought us back in the good old days. That Blade, is a Kid Dragoon. Treat it with respect."

"Dragoon… Thanks, I guess." Samantha pocketed the Beyblade. Chidori extended her hand out to Samantha, and Samantha grudgingly accepted shaking hands.

"Alright, now let's go guys," Leo said walking into the jet. The engines came to life, softly purring at first then roaring into life, ready to take off.

. . .

The interior of the jet was just as fabulous as it was outside. The seats weren't all aligned like in most commercial jets. Instead the seats were all round and grouped around small white coffee tables. The chairs had red lining and golden cushions and attached to the wall next to each chair and tables were a plasma screen television with the latest video game consoles underneath and a DVD player. Further back along the plane was a fridge with all kinds of snacks and the door to the bathroom at the very back. On the sides of the walls were more panels but nobody knew what they were for. Dr. Aki entered the plane last feeling proud of himself as everyone looked around in amazement.

"Impressive isn't it?" he said. "Mr. Dickenson was going to give you the regular tickets but I convinced him to send you guys the very best, so you guys should be thanking me. Make yourselves right at home. All of this is for you guys so don't wreck anything, or I'll be paying. And that money will come directly out of your pocket money, for the rest of your lives! So, are we clear on that?" Everybody nodded their heads. "Good. Now buckle up, we'll be taking off soon." The engines kicked into life, screaming as it slowly taxied across the runway. Everybody strapped into their seats, still excited at going abroad. The low hum of the engine thrummed through them as they sat motionless. Ikki looked out the side at the terminal one final time at the land where he'd spent most of his life. Dr. Aki was seated at a table at the back sipping on a cup of green tea. The engines surged into life, powering the plane off the ground and up into the cloudy sky.

_This is it, there's no turning back now. I guess we should be thinking of the team name and other stuff now. I wonder if we'll meet Victor and Warbandit again? And didn't that weird kid say something about wanting to meet Victor?_

"Hey Koji, do you think we'll meet the guys we fought in the last WRC?" Ikki asked Koji. Koji was staring blankly out the window at the clouds as they drifted past the plane. "Koji?"

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Koji asked as if waking up from a dream.

"Koji, you've been pretty quiet since you arrived at the airport. Any reason for that?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking, what if I'm not as popular across the world as I am here?"

"It was just that? I shouldn't have asked…"

"Don't worry about him Ikki," Metabee said . "He's just worried that someone might steal Karin while he's away."

"Please, nobody could steal my Kaarin, whether I'm there or not."

Windstorm and Queen Bee both stood to the side shaking their heads.

"Boys are such stupid creatures," Queen Bee whispered to Windstorm.

"I agree, too dumb to realize that Karin's head is more empty than their own." Windstorm snickered back.

"I'll remember to be more careful when I pick a girl," Sumilidon said wisely feeling embarrassed for his medafighter. Both Queen Bee and Windstorm jumped back in shock.

"You can _talk?!_" they exclaimed astonished.

"Only when I need to. I let actions speak for me, but sometimes not even that can get through Koji. He may be my medafighter, but sometimes he's far too stubborn. A bit like Ikki."

Both girls turned around and huddled together.

"Is it me or is Sumilidon not like any other medabot I've seen?" Queen Bee whispered.

"He's nothing like the silent types I see everywhere, it's like he's actually got personality!" Windstorm giggled.

"And he's cute to."

"And strong."

"And those claws send my heart racing!"

"I'd sink _my _claws into him,"

They both let out a heartfelt sigh. Sumilidon looked at them both confused and slightly uncomfortable.

"Umm… did I say something wrong?"

"No…" Windstorm said dreamily.

"You were perfect," Queen Bee said with just as much mushiness. Sumilidon took a step backwards, unsure what to do.

"Whew it's hot in here! Umm… I need to, tighten a bolt… so just…" Sumilidon rapidly walked to the bathroom and shut the door behind him. The girls huddled again.

"Alright, this one's mine, you can take Metabee or something," Queen Bee said.

"Isn't Metabee like your private slave or something? Stick to him and leave the real bots to me," Queen Bee answered back.

"Please, you don't have what it takes, not even a bo_dy _like this!" Queen Bee posed as if she were a supermodel. Before another word was said, the bathroom door flung open, Sumilidon flying backwards and landing at Koji and Ikki's table in tatters, his flexor sword torn to pieces.

"Sumilidon!" Koji rushed out of his seet and lifted his head. "Sumilidon, speak to me! What happened?!" An ejecting medal answered him instead. Koji looked up and standing in front of the bathroom were three figures. One of them was a large looking man draped in a navy blue cloak with huge fists like hams. Beside him was a young girl no older than sixteen with dark purple hair and large violet eyes. She wore torn denim jeans and a black tank top. The third person was a pale looking boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He held in his arms what looked like a cross between a machinegun and a super stun-gun.

"Alright, this is a stick-up! Don't move and nobody (but that guys over there) gets hurt!" the girl said. "I've always wanted to say that. Okay, we're taking this plane over, so don't move, or else!" Two medabots stepped out from behind them, both ninja types and the boy held up his machinegun. Instinctively, Ikki brought his medawatch up to his mouth.

"No don't! You'll wreck the plane!" Dr. Aki screamed. Just as soon as he said that the boy aimed at Metabee and fired, a thin stream of blue electricity surging out of the gun and coursing through Metabee's body.

**All functions disabled. Shutdown is imminent.**

Metabee's knees buckled underneath him before he collapsed. Leo stood up clenching his fists.

"That wasn't very nice," he said menacingly, almost forcing the stowaways to back off.

"Tch, I'm not scared of you," the big man said, and with every reason not to be actually being taller than him which is rare.

"You should be scared of me though." Before he could react, a lightning fast punch had already connected with his jaw. His whole body flipped over from the impact, sending him spinning on the floor before he lay still, sprawled on the floor. Akkiana rubbed her knuckles against her shirt, not fazed in the least by this encounter. The two medabots drew their blades. Akkiana smiled at them. "I'm not scared of half-baked bots like you." Her whole body started glowing bright yellow. "It's time for an **upgrade!**" she held up her fists like a boxer, her fists glowing bright like burning charcoals. Before the ninja medabots could move they were all hammered by a storm of blows striking them as fast as a machinegun. The boy pointed his weapon at her but she quickly kicked it out of his hands. She moved faster than lightning in front of him, her fist held back.

"Wait just one second!" Faster than even the medabots could see, Akkiana flew backwards along the plane aisle, almost smashing into the door to the cockpit. The girl with purple hair stood facing her, her hands in her pockets. "So you're a reconstructed human."

"That's right, medaparts replaced many of my vital organs and so I replaced a few more parts just for kicks. I'm cyborg Akkia." The other girl smiled.

"There's a place for you in our world. I didn't think I'd meet someone as strong as me in this life but it's already happened." They didn't share another word, instead they rushed towards eachother, both assaulting eachother with a hail of blows like Gatling guns at eachother, neither one taking a hit. Just the wind from each hit could be felt on the faces of the onlookers. The blonde haired boy picked up his gun.

"Well then, your friend is guaranteed to lose this match so you might as well start handing over the plane right now. You've been skyjacked!"


	20. Let it Rip!

**Hey everybody! Umm... Sorry about the whole delay, you know, I was kinda doing other stuff for a while, writing in the Inheritance archive, then I got sick and all that... Then I recovered, and was doing other stuff… It happens so don't kill me or anything! Anyway, I'm back! And also, I was listening to this song, Motivation, by Sum 41. But, I'm not good at songfics or implementing songs in my writing so for the full effect, I advise listening to the song yourself during their first encounter with a beyblader. Motivation by Sum 41. Or better yet, Round after Round from the original Beyblade soundtrack. Anyway, You know what it is!**

**This is the _Real _Deal ****presents:**

_**This is SPIRIT!**_

**Chapter 20: Let it rip!**

Ikki stared at the group that had invaded the jet, his brain racing to come up with a plan of action. Ikki clenched his fists jn frustration.

_Sometimes I can be so useless! Why? If only I could remove that gun..._

"What do you guys even want?" Ikki asked. Akkia and the other girl both backed off temporarily, both of them needing a breather. The blonde kid looked around the jet, avoiding Ikki's question.

"Nice ride. This must have cost a lot of money to pay for. It would be a shame if something happened to this... But that's not what we're here for. You see, our leader is a very special person. He's often misunderstood. Anyway, our leader wishes to see you, the same people who caused him some light annoyance by destroying his favourite ship, and scaring away his fleet."

"Slight annoyance?" Koji asked. "We wrecked your whole fleet!"

"Do not get it wrong, we pulled out not because you were superior to us, but because eliminating a few brats was not worth the minor damage it would do to our other ships. Don't get us wrong, we only needed to find rare medals and Tochikans. Finding next to nothing even after a full scale assault, we could retreat. But that aside, we cannot allow you to compete in the upcoming tournament. You understand, we do acknowledge your strength so do not wish for you to gain any more experience. Understood?" everybody glared at him. "Good. Now if you'll excuse us." The large man from before walked slowly towards the cockpit, still running his cheek. He opened the door and entered, closing it behind him. A muffled scream followed by two dull thuds followed after. The boy with the gun sat down in one of the seats before looking up at the small luggage compartment above his head. He frowned before standing up again.

"That's strange... I'm sure that's a bit large for an ordinary bag... Medaparts?" A large bag covered by a black sheet was what he was staring at. He moved his hand to remove the sheet.

"Take this!" two voices screamed simultaneously as two people jumped from the compartments, both kicking the blonde in the face as they fell. The boy collapsed on the floor clutching his face in pain. The two figures landed on the floor, one of them gracefully as if this was common to her. The other landed clumsily, tottering on one leg before landing on the floor with a thud.

"DC? Sakura?" Ikki exclaimed. DC got back up, dusting his clothes off.

"W'sup dude?" he said casually, adjusting his hat then putting his hands in his packets. "We couldn't just let you guys hog all the fun so we hitched our way on. Hope you don't mind freeloaders!"

"I knew there would be trouble, I just knew it!" Sakura yelled triumphantly. "But no, dad wouldn't believe me would he? Well, good thing I came anyway!" Sakura looked down at the boy who was beginning to get back up. She crouched down and gave him a swift karate chop to the neck. "Well, now that that's cleared up, lets go wild!" Everybody turned to the remaining girl, either medawatches at the ready or fists held up. The girl visibly paled.

"Hey, hey, lets talk this out! You'll wreck the plane if you do that!"

**"We don't care!" **was the booming reply that came back from everybody.

"Between letting you get it and blowing it up, we'd rather blow it to smithereens," Leo said with Blackbeetle by his side cracking her knuckles. The girl squealed in terror before turning around to run, just to see Aokshi standing blocking her way, a miniature red blaze in his hands. The girl looked backwards and forwards before giving herself up. Within the next five minutes, she was tied up in a thick spider web made by Windstorm who had transformed her arm into a spidertrap medapart. As soon as both captives and the medabots were tied up, the group moved towards the cockpit, Metabee now reawoken and more angry than ever. Before anyone could stop him, he yanked the door open, startling the large would-be skyjacker. Before the man could say or do anything, Metabee pulled him out of his seat, breaking the seatbelt in the process, tossed him across the plane and shot two seeker missiles at him, rocking the whole plane in the process.

**"Metabee you idiot!"** Ikki screamed at him.

"What? What did I do?"

"Apart from nearly blow up the jet, you just knocked out the only person here who can fly a plane!"

"WHAT?! I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT!

"YOU IDIOT! If I die, I'm **totally** gonna kill you!"

"I'm sorry okay? It's not like I did it on purpose! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Cause you were too hotheaded to listen. And it's only common sense Metabee!"

"Then next time, you try and think straight when there's thousands of volts running through you, medafailure!"

"Take that back Metabee!"

"Make me!" Leo facepalmed as the two of them got into a fight for nothing.

"Ignoring them, we do have a probem now. How will we fly the plane?"

"Hello, are you forgetting me? Sakura, trainee junior pilot of the Select Corps? I can fly anything if try my best!" DC nudged her in the ribs.

"Hey, hey, don't forget me here!" he said. "I know everything about planes and play flight simulator 24/7! You're gonna need a co-pilot!" Before she could object, he sat down in a seat. He looked back to make sure everyone was comfortable with this. Koji shrugged his shoulders.

"Do what you want. I don't care as long as I leave here alive."

"Do what you need to do," Akkia said. Leo gave them a nod and everyone else looked okay if not a bit worried. Dr Aki on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

"Heh? Where's the doc?" Everyone turned to the far end of the plane. There Dr Aki was kneeling on the floor with incense candles burning around him, kneeled over in prayer.

"_What are you doing?!_" everyone screamed at once.

"What does it look like? In all my years, of which I have many, I have _never_ had to trust children to fly a plane, let alone a plane I'm in!"

"Come in doc, we're not little kids anymore!" Samantha said, reminding everybody that she was on the same flight. "Well, most of us anyway," she said, tilting her head towards DC who was bouncing around on his seat, screaming and whooping when he spotted a new button, of which there were many. Sakura planted herself in the seat next to his with a sigh.

"Alright, this is simple stuff. All we have to do is lock onto the coordinates of the airport and set this thing in autopilot. We stay here in case anything goes wrong but for the most part we're just passengers to. We'll need to regain control when we're landing and I'll need help so you better be competent!"

"Don't worry about it, I'm a ninja!" DC exclaimed. With all the excitement dying down, everybody went back to their seats. Sakura smiled at his confidence.

"Ok! As long as we're nowhere near the airport you can take a break now and then. You're not a pilot so you won't be much help to me anyway. Oh, and the final thing!" She dug her hand in her pocket and pulled out a kuwagata medal.

"A beetle medal?"

"Yep. Check this!" She pulled open a small hatch and there was a medal slot. She inserted the medal and on the windshield, an image of an Air-ptera appeared.

"What's the mission this time?" the medabot asked.

"Just keep this thing in the skies for us. Good luck Air-hawk." The medabot saluted before disappearing from the screen, keeping a HUD on screen. Sakura relaxed and looked towards her co-pilot. She frowned as DC broke into a sweat, his hands jittering. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine... It's just..." He turned his head slowly to face her with a weak smile on his face. "I'm scared of heights..." Silence. Nobody even breathed for a solid ten seconds. Then, it came.

_**"You stupid!"**_ Sakura punched him across the back of his skull, nearly knocking him out. "What in the world is wrong with you? You told me you wanted to be a pilot! How does that work?!"

"That's the problem. I love planes and I know everything about flying them, but the second I stop to think how high I am I freeze up..."

"Yeah right, you probably just made that up so I'd like you better!" At this DC suddenly turned serious.

"Trust me on this, I can't lie about flying, even if I want to. There is a very good reason why I want to be a pilot. It's to do with an old friend of mine... I promised her that I would become a pilot, and I can't break my word. I've overcome my fear of heights numerous times, so I'll do it again to make this dream come true. I would tell you more but it still hurts to think about it so maybe another time." The cockpit became silent for a while. In that short thirty seconds DC had turned deathly serious, his eyes more focused than ever. Sakura tried to think of something to say.

"Umm... Sorry for accusing you of being a liar..." DC smiled, all seriousness evaporated.

"It's okay. It's kinda stupid anyway, a pilot who's scared of heights. Normally all I need is for someone to smack some sense into me. Come on, let's see what this jet can really do!" DC flipped one of the many switches and checked a series of gauges before communicating to the passengers.

**Yo people! Since our pilot is unconscious, we'll be taking control of this plane. So please, buckle in. It's going to be a bumpy ride!**

* * *

><p>The landing was anything but pleasant, with a near crash into a parked airbus. The medabots and medafighters got out of the plane, staring around at their surroundings. A large crew of photographers was there, snapping pictures at all of them, confusing the optics of several medabots. Other medafighters were among them, all hoping to get an autograph. Before Ikki could get crushed under the mountains of photographers, a large number of security guards wearing navy blue shirts labelled BBA barred their way. Before Ikki could get off the plane, Akkia grabbed his shoulder.<p>

"Wait Ikki, we still have those other guys in the back. We can't just leave them here."

"R-right." Ikki ran back up to go and get them. They were locked up in the bathroom. Luckily nobody else had to 'go' during the trip. Ikki opened up the door and froze. All that was there was a stuffed snake teddy and a note written 'sucker'. Ikki ran back out to the others.

"They're gone!" he cried. Everyone turned to him confused. "They've just disappeared, as if they were never here!" Akkia ran over to the bathroom door and yanked it open only to find the same thing. She stepped away from the door, shaking her head.

"I should have kept an eye on them instead of just leaving them like that. I take full responsibility..."

"This isn't the time for that!" DC shouted. "Just enjoy the fame while it lasts! Let's go guys, and show them what team Japan can do! As for me, well I need to find my own team, and my dad, so the next time we meet will be in the arena!" With that, DC left through the crowd of people, struggling through the reporters until finally in his rage he summoned Chrome who expertly cleared the way with machine gun bullets. The others quickly followed afterwards into the terminal, too busy thinking up strategies to notice the reporters chasing them.

* * *

><p>"Welcome America to the world's first ever Battle of the Beasts Commemoration tournament!" The stadium was packed full of people from all over the US. Ikki had never seen a stadium like this one before. The battle arena in the centre was instead of a flat surface, a huge bowl which made it difficult for a medabot to run away or fight when far away from the centre. There were two benches by the side of the arena, likely for the teams. Someone lightly tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to find Samantha and Puttycat.<p>

"Come on Ikki, we've gotta meet up with the others. We have to decide the running order." Ikki followed her to the locker rooms. Waiting for them already was the rest of the team, all of them either tuning up medaparts or thinking up strategies. Leo looked up from his work of fixing Blackbeetle's tin-pet.

"Hey Ikki, follow me for a bit. I need to show you something." Ikki followed him out through a door to their right. They descended down a short flight of steps before opening the doors at the end. What they stepped into looked like a huge gymnasium of some sort with medafighters and Beybladers everywhere. Ikki was pretty sure he could hear Eye of the Tiger playing in the background. "This is the practice area for every medafighter and beyblader who arrives. They can practice all they want here. This is the best place to scope out strategies from all over the US."

"No problem! Although I don't think the beybladers will be much of a problem. All they are are spinning tops!" Just as soon as he said this, a Totalizer went flying and crashed into the wall just beside Ikki.

"Ah! Totalizer!" a voice cried. A small boy ran over to his damaged medabot. "Come on buddy, speak to me!" the only answer he got was an ejected medal. The boy turned around with tears in his eyes. Standing behind him was a larger boy wearing a denim jacket and pierced ears, probably fourteen years old. A blue beyblade was spinning rapidly before his feet.

"Man I can't believe you're so weak! I guess medafighters really are just talk after all!" a group of boys behind him all started laughing.

"I guess I was wrong," Ikki said to himself before going to check on the kid. "Hey, is your medabot alright?" he asked. The kid wiped his runny nose on his sleeve before nodding his head.

"Yeah, but that bully is beating up everyone's medabots and taking their medaparts, and he doesn't even use them. He just sells them or destroys them in our faces so we can't get them back! He's the worst!"

"What's this guy's name anyway?"

"Yoshi... Even other beybladers don't like him. But nobody here is strong enough to beat him." as they were talking, Yoshi walked over to the downed Totalizer.

"Let's see... What medapart this time? Hmm... I like this shiny thing here!" Yoshi picked up the tortoise medal with a grin. The little boy gasped.

"No! You can't do that! That medal is my medabot's brain! Taking that is like stealing my best friend!"

"You think I care? That'll teach you to be so weak!"

"Stop," a commanding voice said. Everybody turned their heads to Leo, then quickly backed away in fright. "Betting medals? Any medafighter or beyblader who does that is a disgrace! That's like trying to bet away your best friend, but you wouldn't know since you don't have any friends do you?"

"What do you know? I have plenty of friends," Yoshi replied, though not with so much confidence now.

"Whatever you say Einstein, but get this; if you're gonna bet medals, you better be prepared to bet your life on it as well!"

"W-what are you gonna do about it?" he asked, genuinely scared after that last sentence.

"Nothing. He's gonna do something," he said looking at Ikki. Ikki froze up before running back to Leo.

"Are you out of your mind?" he whispered. "That guy tossed a Totalizer across the room! I need Metabee for this and he's nowhere to be seen! Windstorm will be completely eaten here!"

"Don't worry kid, as your team captain I trust you not to mess up." Ikki looked back at the crowd that had now gathered.

"Say, is that Ikki Tenryou?"

"No way! He's the guy who almost beat Victor at the WRC!"

"He's super strong I hear. Yoshi is finished!"

"Doubt it. Yoshi has fought loads of medafighters. Ikki hasn't even seen a blader has he?" Ikki gulped and went up to challenge him.

"Alright, it'll be a submission battle! My parts for his medal!"

"I'll be the ref this time," Leo said folding his arms. "we'll play by the standard rules. First person to shutdown the other guys functions and movement wins. The loser must then submit one medapart or blade piece, for keeps! We ready?" Yoshi picked up his blade and placed it inside a green launcher. Ikki pressed a button on his medawatch.

"Metabee, robattle, now!"

"Somebody say robattle?" he replied right next to Ikki, startling him.

"How'd you get here so fast?"

"Robattles are in my circuits! You know, I just know where to be!"

"Alright, 3...2...1... LET IT RIP!" As soon as that was said, the music in the background changed to the song 'motivation' by Sum 41.

"Go, Unicoleon!" Yoshi yelled as he pulled the ripcord out of the launcher.

"Attack Metabee!" Metabee charged forward towards the small beyblade on the floor. The blade darted side to side rapidly, throwing all of Metabee's shots off target. The blade seemed to launch off the floor, shredding Metabee's left arm to pieces.

**Warning. 70% damage.**

"What?!" Ikki screamed. "What kind of power... Metabee, seeker missiles!" Metabee, blasted two high power missiles at the beyblade on the floor. The ground underneath it, rose from the explosion, tossing the blade high. Surprisingly, it landed perfectly.

"Now I'll show you something new! Prepare yourself Unicoleon..."

"Metabee, again!" More missiles flew towards Unicoleon. The blade jumped again, hooking into the sides of the missiles before flinging them back towards Metabee. Metabee just barely jumped out of the way in time. "Action mode!" Metabee turned into his car form, charging into Unicoleon, knocking it all the way back to Yoshi's feet. Unicoleon wobbled briefly before regaining his balance. Metabee hailed it with a rain of bullets, kicking up dust around it. Yet still, from out of the dust, Unicoleon shot out, shredding Metabee's feet and legs to pieces, wherever the blade didn't hit, the wind from its passing did the trick.

**100% damage. Leg functions ceased.**

"There's something you should know about my beyblade. My blade has something known as a bit-beast inside it. That's the equivalent of a rare medal. Let me demonstrate. Unicoleon, now! Pegasus flame!" The small dot in the centre of the beyblade began glowing bright red.

**Unknown medaforce active.**

Emerging from the beyblade was an enormous red unicorn, but instead of laughing at it like Ikki thought he would do, he became paralyzed in fear. The beast was at the very least five or six times the size of MegaEmperor. Metabee shot his last four missiles at it and the blade, just to find they disintegrated before impact. "Finish this Unicoleon!" Unicoleon reared up on his hind legs, neighing, sending vibrations through the arena.

"Ikki, what the hell IS that thing?!" Metabee cried.

"I don't know, just don't get hit by it!" Too late, both the beast and the blade rammed into Metabee, flames erupting from its horn on impact. The horn impaled Metabee on impact, it's hooves tearing him apart with the blade.

**Arms and legs ****DEAD.**** Functions ceased. Head damage critical.**

Metabee got up on shaky legs, one of them twisted at an odd angle. Bright green light erupted from him.

"Dude... I rock!"

**Medaforce type 1, Ultrashot active.**

"Yes! Metabee, do it now, use he medaforce!" Yoshi looked on in confusion as both Ikki and Metabee became engulfed in yellow and green light with blue crackling electricity.

"What are you two?! Unicoleon, burn them, do it now!"

"It's time... To kiss your bot goodbye! Medaforce!" A massive yellow beam lit up the field as Metabee blasted away Unicoleon, even as he was breathing fire back. The blade shot right back to Yoshi, charred and completely unusable unless repaired.

"Functions ceased! The winner is... Metabee!" Yoshi collapsed to his knees as he picked up his ruined blade.

"Unicoleon lost... I lost..." the audience erupted into cheers. Metabee stretched out his parts before collapsing on the floor.

"Ikki, I think I'll sit the next one out of it means fighting another one of those!"

"No problem Metabee, you were great this time so it's fine."

"What do you mean, 'this time'?" Metabee asked before his optics turned off. Ikki walked over to Yoshi and extended his hand.

"The medal," Ikki said. Yoshi reluctantly handed it back. Ikki took it and the small boy ran over to get it, smiling from ear to ear and sticking his tongue out at Yoshi. Ikki extended his hand again.

"What else do you want? Unicoleon is all I have and he's wrecked now."

"I just wanna shake your hand," Ikki said, hurt that someone would think such. "Your Unicoleon is awesome, and with the way he was battling, something tells me you're not that bad a guy. I think while you don't seem like it, you actually do care for your beyblade."

"Of course I care for my bey! The Unicoleon bit-chip has been passed down through my family since ancient times, back when my family used to live in Europe, but frankly I don't care about all of that. He's always given me everything he's got in battles, the least I can do is care for him."

"So think about it! It's exactly the same for allow these medafighters! It's the same for me and Metabee to! Even after Metabee got amnesia we STILL looked out for eachother. We're not so different after all are we? Just be considerate next time you battle someone and play the game fairly. Who knows? Maybe next time we meet, it'll be me kissing my bot goodbye!" Yoshi nodded his head before they shook hands finally. Leo smiled a little before looking at his medawatch briefly.

"Alright Ikki, I hope you've learned something about what we'll be facing. Everybody else already had a couple of rounds here thanks to Akkia dragging us all here. You'll just have to do with one fight. We're up next in the stadium." Ikki nodded his head before picking up Metabee's body. As soon as Metabee was on his feet he woke up.

"W-what? Is it our turn?"

"Not yet Metabee. Now come on, we'll be up soon. Ready?"

"I was manufactured... Ready..." Metabee's optics switched off again as he collapsed on the floor. Ikki just sighed and picked up Metabee and placed him on his back. They then proceeded back up the stairs. Waiting for them at the top was the full team, all of them ready to go.

"Enjoyed the sights Ikki?" Koji said with a slight smile.

"Yeah, we're really in for it this time guys," Ikki said. "We might not win this one."

"Don't say that or we won't even stand a chance!" Puttycat said trying to cheer Ikki up as he suddenly became gloomy. "You guys have saved the world! Some of you have even done it twice! This will be a piece of cake!"

"Stay focused though," Akkia said. "I'm not fighting with you on this match so it's up to you guys. Let's do this!" Everyone gathered in a circle and placed their hands in the middle.

"On the count of three," Ikki said. _"3...2...1... LET IT RIP!"_

**Man I feel like such a noob! I cant believe that I _just _figured out how to do this!**

* * *

><p><strong>That line issue! And it's been right there at the top of the screen staring at me! Dude I feel stupid! Just...<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>BAM! Again! No more<strong>

**...**

**But**

* * *

><p><strong>Then I'll likely forget by next week or something. Whatever. The Real Deal, OUT!<strong>


	21. Hurricane Sally

**Pissed for life! Was working on a chapter, almost finished it when BOOM! Whole chapter deleted. Eh, my fault for not telling the guy with my flash to be careful but STILL! Anyway, now I've got that out, Chapter 21! Yes, I do love crossing things over. It all started when I played Super Smash Brawl 2 and I was hooked with crossovers. But anyway, that aside,**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

_**This is SPIRIT! **_**(You know, I've run out of different ways of typing This is Spirit... Oh yeah! Got one!)**

**This...**

**Is...**

**SPIRIT!**

_**Clash of Souls...**_

**Chapter 21: Hurricane Sally**

The roar of the crowd was deafening as Ikki stepped into the stadium, the cheers erupting around him from the hundreds of supporters. Ikki's eyes quickly adjusted to the harsh glare of the bright lights as he stepped out of the gloomy locker rooms. A robattle was going on in the stadium in the centre between a Blackram and a Belzelga. With a loud resounding thud, the Belzelga collapsed on the floor, its visor shattered and its medal ejected.

"Wow! What a huge upset for David! And with that, Team Breakers wins this match!" The Blackram stepped away from the arena to its medafighter with barely a scratch on it. Its medafighter ejected the medabots medal and transported the parts back to storage. "And now, it's time for the next match. Please be patient for five minutes as the teams prepare." The team walked over to their bench and huddled together.

"Alright here's the plan," Akkiana said. The positions in the team had already been discussed. Leo was the Team Captain, Koji was second in command having a higher ranking compared to Ikki, Ikki was the muscles and Samantha was support being several thousand times weaker than the rest. Akkiana would rarely battle in tournaments and being the strongest, was more of their training coach than a competitor. She was the secret weapon when everything seems lost. "This won't follow the usual seven point Beyblade rules, and it's not going to be the ordinary robattle rules where we all battle at once either. This will use the classic rules of best of three. There will be three matches, so only three of us battle per game. If your functions cease or you're knocked out of the arena, you lose, end of story. So we'll have to throw them off our robattle style from the beginning so they don't latch onto the way we all battle. Koji, you're robattle style relies more on speed, and interrupting enemy attacks. That's the most different to everybody else apart from Ikki and Metabee so you go first. Samantha will go second and try to drag out the fight until either none of you can fight or if it's a beyblade, it stops spinning.

"Last up will be Leo. You'll be the guaranteed win and will help get us points. Everybody agree?"

"Right!" everyone yelled back.

"Good. Don't lose!" The group proceeded to the circular beystadium, there medabots now fully tuned and ready to robattle. The announcers began to speak again as soon as the two minute break was up.

"And we're back ladies and gentlemen," one announcer said. "We're here live from New York city. This is Brad Jordan..."

"And Mike-the-pike Orton!" the second announcer exclaimed with more energy than the last announcer. "We've seen some awesome fights so far, but let's see if the next teams can surprise us!"

The referee who was in the arena turned to face the arriving team. Ikki's eyebrows nearly leaped off his forehead.

"Henry?!" He screamed. Henry rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey there guys! Let's not go into details how I got this job but for now let's just go with it for now. Anyway..." Henry cleared his throat. "Coming up from aaaaaalllll the way from Medaropolis Japan, we have the one and only, Team Raging Beetle!" The crowd erupted into roaring cheers, Koji absorbing it all and receiving adoring glances from all his fans. He blew a kiss into the audience and Ikki could swear he saw a whole line of girls faint. "And on the other side, a new group to join, the travelling mixed team, Mystic Force!" The cheers for Ikki's team were drowned out by the round of applause for Mystic Force. Three individuals walked up to the stadium and stood opposite them at the other side of the beystadium. One of them had brown hair, brown eyes and had a serious look in his eyes. He didn't really stand out much by his other two companions. By his side was a Blackram. The other person was a bouncy energetic looking girl with red hair and about the same age as Ikki. The final member of the team looked like a virtual clone to Koji, drinking in the applause. He had dark hair that reached his shoulders just like Koji, the only difference being that it was dark brown instead of pure black. By his side was something that looked like a black Sumilidon, but smaller, sleeker, and far more expensive.

It had four claws on its right hand instead of three and its left arm had two smaller claws attached to the hammer. It's head part resembled a Warbandit more than it resembled a Sumilidon.

Koji glared at his clone and his clone glared back.

"So you're Koji Karakuchi right?" the clone said. "It seems I was right to not raise my hopes, you are just another peasant before me."

"Think again," Koji said. "Once you and I enter the arena you will be the one grovelling at my feet, begging for forgiveness that I won't grant!"

"Consider yourself lucky if I spare your medabot!" Before they could continue, both their teams returned to their own respective benches. Koji and his clone remained behind along with their medabots.

"Alright, and the first match is between Koji Karakuchi and Kevin Silverwind!" The crowd erupted into cheers as both medafighters got ready to battle. Sumilidon jumped into the stadium as did the enemy medabot. Data clicked on their medawatches.

**Exor (Sumilidon): Extreme Tech, STG type**

**Medafighter: Koji Karakuchi**

**Medal type: Kuwagata**

**Specialty: Shadow Sword**

**Signature: Extreme Shadow Sword**

"Koji's known as the number two medafighter in Japan," the announcer, Jordan, said. "His shadow sword technique is well known and feared to have the power to even defeat the fabled medaforce!"

"Yeah, but let's not forget that he's going up against Kevin of Mystic Force!"

**Wild Sabre: MDC, LEO type**

**Medafighter: Kevin**

**Medal type: Cat**

**Specialty: Scatter Flash**

**Signature: Extreme Scatter Flash**

"Alright, Medafighters ready?" Henry said. "Medabots, robattle!"

"Sumilidon, Shadow Sword!"

"Wild Sabre, Scatter Flash!"

In the blink of an eye, both medabots disappeared, Sumilidon in a gust of wind and Wild Sabre in flash of lightning. Nobody even noticed the movement, but already they were in the centre of the stadium hacking, slashing and parrying all of each other's blows. Both of them split up again and circled before engaging again and blasting apart in a fit of sparks. "Wild Sabre, hunting claw!" Wild Sabre held up his left arm and shot out the claw and hammer, having them extend by a powerful cord inside. Sumilidon waved the blow aside with the back of his hand making it seem ineffective, though once it crashed into the ground, dust and debris spread across the stadium.

"Alright Sumilidon, don't get hit by that claw. I know how to get rid of it though..." Wild Sabre pulled his claw back before Sumilidon could simply cut it clean off.

"One more time, tear that Exor!" Kevin yelled.

"Now, disrupt it!" Sumilidon began glowing green and his visor flashed with complicated data. As soon as Wild Sabre fired his claw, the sound of rending metal filled the stadium as his arm ripped itself to shreds. Even so the claw still hit Sumilidon square in the chest, sending him tumbling backwards.

**Warning, Wild Sabre left arm 50% damage.**

**Warning, Exor head and torso 62% damage.**

_They're winning, _Koji thought to himself. _I'm vaguely impressed, but they're not getting this victory! _Koji could hear his team cheering him on, he couldn't let them down already. Kevin just grinned.

"I admit, you're fast, but you can't possibly match the speed of my Scatter Flash technique."

"Don't let him get to you Koji!" Ikki screamed. "Just focus on winning!"

"He's right," Akkia said flatly. Ikki looked at her confused.

"Yo! Who's side are you on?!" Metabee yelled.

"I'm just saying he's right," Akkia said again. "Sumilidon's movements are a fraction of a second slower than Wild Sabre. No, it's not that he's slower, it's that he doesn't have as much control over his movements. His attacks are slightly off. Maybe it's cause he's a medabot in Kilobot parts. Koji only has one trump card." As she said this, both medabots had now separated.

"Wild Sabre, Extreme Scatter Slash!"

"Think again! Extreme Shadow Sword!" Sumilidon became engulfed in the bright green of classic medaforce light.

**Medaforce type 1: Spiral bolt activated.**

Wild Sabre didn't blow up in meda-energy, but was emitting a strange blue aura.

"**Medaforce!" **Sumilidon screamed as he released his most powerful technique. A massive green energy wave was slashed out of his claws. Wild Sabre also slashed at the same time, sending a whole hailstorm of piercing blue and red lasers and crackling blue electricity. The attacks clashed in the middle, and in a burst of light, sent a huge cloud of dust and fire into the air. Both medabots were seen getting sent flying out of the stadium in battered condition before regaining their composure in mid-air and landing on their two feet. Henry looked at both medabots with a frown.

"Then it's decided! This match is a draw by double knockout!"

"Draw?!" both Koji and Kevin exclaimed. They both looked at their medabots and sure enough though they weren't overly harmed, they were both outside the stadium. The crowd erupted into cheers.

"Wow! That match was so fast paced that the instant replay could barely even get it!" Mike shouted.

"But the battle has just begun," Brad picked up. "We'll have to see what the rest of the teams have to offer!"

Koji and Sumilidon marched back to their teams looking dejected.

"Koji, what's the matter?" Ikki asked. "You tied with them and kept the score even, you were unstoppable out there!" Koji just glanced up at Ikki, his eyes now filled with anger.

"Just leave me alone okay?" he said. "I can't accept that. I lost that match fair and square. Sumilidon could barely keep up and I couldn't find a way to slow him down. If that had gone on..."

"But it didn't so stuff it and sit down." Queen Bee said. "Your team says you did fine so accept it and sit down. In fact, work out a new strategy to fight guys like that. Maybe then you won't feel so useless when next time you're mopping the floor with them." Koji just grumbled something under his breath and sat down on the bench. Samantha got up off her bench and proceeded to the beystadium which was now sinking into the ground and being replaced with another fresher one. The person who walked up from the other side was a girl with red hair, freckles and a beaming smile wearing a bright yellow shirt with a white cartoonish tiger and she wore blue jeans. She held a blue launcher.

"Hi! My names Sally, pleased to meet you!" she said with a huge smile. She really didn't look all that dangerous to Samantha.

"Hey. I'm Samantha of the Screws gang. Let's save the chit-chat for later, I'm here to robattle!" Sally nodded her head understandingly.

"Okay I get it, but I'm warning you, you probably won't win against my Herculeo!" Sally pulled out from her pocket a small red beyblade. It looked completely different to Samantha's beyblade which was old and scratched and made of a mix of metal and plastic. This was almost entirely metal and smaller, but for some reason didn't look as friendly as most beyblades. The larger heavy metal ring on the outside was red with quite a few chips and battle scars and above that there was an orange ring showing a lion design. The bolt embedded in the middle had what appeared to be the face of a man with a lions mane, like a sphinx. Puttycat entered the centre of the stadium and held up her paws ready to attack. Sally placed her bey inside the launcher and inserted a black ripcord.

**Puttycat: Medabot Corporation, CAT type**

**Medafighter: Samantha**

**Specialty: Fury swipes**

**Medal type: Cat**

**Signature: Storm combo**

**. . .**

**Cyclone Herculeo: Tecmo, Heavy metal system**

**Beyblader: Sally**

**Specialty: Erratic attacks**

**Bit beast: Herculeo**

**Signature: Dark lightning**

"Alright, are we ready? Okay, let's battle!"

Sally pulled the ripcord with unbelievable strength for somebody like her and sent Herculeo crashing into the ground. Before Puttycat could even move she had already been blasted back by an extreme gust of wind. A cyclone was coming off of Herculeo, shredding everything to pieces with razor winds.

"She wants a bit of breeze doesn't she?" Samantha said, shielding her eyes from the wind. "Go! Storm Combo!" Puttycat launched into the air, spinning like a blur before sending her claws crashing onto Herculeo. Just before impact, Herculeo dodged to the side, completely avoiding Puttycat's claw. "Puttycat, get out and clear the storm, then attack!" Puttycat yanked her claws out the ground and in a flash of rapid swipes, completely cleared the storm away. She then sprinted towards Herculeo to deliver the final blow.

"Alright Herculeo, Now's your chance! Dark lightning attack!" Herculeo began sparking up with black electricity coursing through it. Puttycat sent her paw crashing down onto the beyblade, hoping to stop the attack early. As soon as she made contact, she was repelled by a huge shockwave, sent spiralling to the edge of the beystadium with an evil looking electricity coursing through her body leaving her paralyzed.

"Ah! Puttycat! No!"

"Too late! Herculeo, fire cyclone attack!" A massive cyclone started up again, but this time fire and lightning were mixed in with it. Puttycat didn't even stand a chance.

**100% damage. Functions ceased.**

. . .

Samantha walked back to her team carrying Puttycat in her arms.

"I... I lost... Guys, I'm..."

"Don't worry about it," Akkia said. "It was my mistake putting you in when I didn't know what kind of power they had. Leo, you're up next. You _have _to win this match so it can go to a tie-breaker and we can let Queen Bee in."

"No way, I can't use Queen Bee!" Ikki exclaimed.

"You know I'm right here right?" Queen Bee said annoyed. Leo stood up.

"Alright then, let's go Blackbeetle." They walked towards the stadium to go up against the medafighter with Blackram.

"I should warn you, I'm the muscles of my team," the enemy medafighter said.

**Blackram: Medabot Corporation, DVL**

**Medafighter: Cyrus**

**Specialty: Destruction**

**Medal type: Demon**

**Signature: Ground n' Pound**

"Then _I_ should warn _you_, I'm the strongest in my team. I'm different to the other two."

**Blackbeetle: Extreme Tech, KBT**

**Medafighter: Leo**

**Specialty: Sniping**

**Medal type: Neo-ex medal**

**Signature: Buster Wave**

"Alright then, robattle!"

"Blackbeetle, cripple him," Leo said. Before the Blackram could even take a step, Blackbeetle had blasted his legs to pieces with her missiles.

"Blackram, ignore your injuries. Ground n' Pound!" Blackram smashed both of his fists hard on the ground, sending a rising wave of the floor towards Blackbeetle. She dived to the side, just barely avoiding the attack.

"Alright, Blackbeetle, use the medaforce!"

"_Medaforce?!" _everyone screamed in surprise. As if in reply, Blackbeetle lit up in an array of bright flashing colours.

**Medaforce type 1: Ultra shot version 2, Buster Wave.**

Blackbeetle pointed all her weapons at the Blackram.

"B-Blackram, brace yourself and get ready to counter..."

"Now Blackbeetle!" Every gun went off at once, not in a wave, but as one enormous blast that would put tanks to shame. Blackram punched the rolling yellow blast trying to force it away, just to find a whole array of machinegun bullets had embedded themselves in his fist, popping all the bolts in his fist out. The napalms then exploded on the fist, turning his whole arm into a skeleton of its former self before the missiles finished the job. Then the full brunt of the attack hit him, obliterating practically everything he had, revealing bits of burnt tin-pet. But it wasn't over. Far from it. Blackbeetle somehow appeared right behind the Blackram and this time fired in the more traditional way, in one extreme blast of power and firearms. All that was left was a standing tin-pet and a medal.

"Functions ceased! The winner is, Blackbeetle!"

Cyrus just gaped at the scene, not willing himself to believe what he had just witnessed. Blackbeetle jumped out of the stadium and together they walked back to their teams. Even the announcers were at a loss for words. As soon as they were with the team again, Akkia fist bumped Leo.

"Great job. Now it's Ikki's turn. Their's a short break between now and the next match so Koji, since you have all the technology you should tune up Queen Bee."

"Wait." Everyone turned to Samantha. "Let me try again. That beyblader is going to go next. She's one of the strongest players they've got, and is the only person who won a battle. They have to send her. I've figured out how to beat her, and we're not gonna do it with medabots."

"No chance. We can't take chances here," Akkia said. "Ikki's gonna battle and that's all there is to it."

"Wait," Leo said with a smile. "Let her go. Think about it. If we don't give her a chance to show us what she can do now, when will we? We'll just keep meeting stronger and stronger enemies and tell her that they're too strong for her. Winning is great, but it's not worth it if you don't do it with your friends." Akkia looked between everybody and saw they all felt the same way. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"What can I say? Fine. Just know that I warned you."

"Well then, you're gonna need some help," a voice said. Henry stepped towards the group. "If you're gonna battle against a beyblade then you're gonna need to know all about how they work first."

"Henry, you're the referee. Are you allowed to help us?" Ikki asked.

"Of course! I think... I'm from Japan to ya know! And besides, I'm not giving you strategies, just information. Now listen up. I'm pretty old school so don't judge me if I get the names of these things wrong. A Beyblade primarily has five parts to it. There's the bearing. This is the point it spins on and determines its attack patter and spin speed and the likes. Then theirs the spin gear, which determines a beyblade's height and has other effects like shock absorbers or down force fans or in really old-school beyblades, might have actual engines inside to release hidden power. Above that is the metal weight ring or weight disk. This entirely metal ring provide attack and defence, deciding weight, spin speed, balance and stamina. It's basically the beyblade's muscles! Next is the energy ring just above. That is a plastic ring that helps with aerodynamics and provide even more attack power than before. It also helps the launcher to grip the blade.

"Lastly, and _by far_ the most important, is the bolt core. This is quite literally the heart and core of any beyblade and without it the blade really does fall apart. You can't create a beyblade without it and so it is _vital _you don't lose it. Now Samantha has a really old fashioned beyblade so it works slightly differently, and so instead of a bolt core it has a bit-chip which is slightly less vital and only provides a bit of weight. Either way, a bolt core contains the bit-beast spirit that lives inside beyblades. Now using that information do you think you know how to beat her now?"

"No," Samantha and Ikki both replied plainly. Henry face palmed.

"Okay, I'll break it down for you. Herculeo is a new gen beyblade and so he has a bolt-core. From what I saw it has some kind of secret trick to it, maybe the lightning attack from before. Now its bolt core holds the whole blade together _and _holds its finishing move, so it's even more important than a medal. You get me now?" Both of them shook their heads. Henry simply shook his head. "Okay, one more thing I'd like to point out. That beyblade you're going up against is a lot newer than Samantha's. Because of how small it is and the advanced launcher she's got, it can spin anywhere between fifty percent and one hundred percent faster."

"One hundred percent?!" Ikki screamed. "That's twice as fast isn't it?"

"Yup! So unless you have a _really _strong arm, you're gonna have to think of some way to counter that spin. Well anyway, good luck. Oh, and Samantha, you might need this." He threw a launcher and ripcord towards her. "Don't wreck it on your first try." Samantha nodded her head and stepped towards the stadium. As she'd thought, Sally was also going. By now she knew just how strong she was so she would have to take her seriously.

"Hey, you're back!" Sally said happily. "I was getting worried that I'd have to go up against the other guy who chewed up Blackram. Then I'd have to give it my all!"

"You should be giving that all the time," Samantha said menacingly, holding up her Kid Dragoon. "But now you should be especially careful now I know how to beat you." Sally's eyes widened in surprise.

"Hey, you've got a beyblade! I thought this tournament would just be filled with medafighters but I was wrong! There's all sorts of people here!" Sally held up her arm ready to go. To her surprise, Samantha took several steps back. "Uh... What are you doing?"

"Nothing, just getting ready."

"Alright, are you ready? 3, 2, 1... Let it riiiiip!" Samantha sprinted forward as fast as she could, her launcher in her hand.

_If I can't match her spin speed, I'll just beat her actual momentum and knock out all her speed in one go!_

Samantha jumped in the air and pulled the rip cord with all her might. Sally also ripped out her rip cord, sparks flying from the force of the spin. Herculeo landed in the dish just as before with a cyclone whipping up a monster storm. Samantha's Dragoon landed at roughly the same time, not going mad with power like Herculeo, but being more focused and controlled.

"Dragoon, tackle that Herculeo!" Dragoon shot like a rifle bullet towards Herculeo. Even with less power, the extreme speed of the attack knocked Herculeo high into the air, shocking Sally even more. To her relief, it landed just on the edge of the stadium and came back in, now more calm than before and with a slight wobble.

"Phew! That was a close one. You almost had me there I have to admit. But it's not gonna be enough to stop us! Herculeo, dizzy strikes!" Herculeo went after Dragoon, moving in erratic unpredictable movements. On the other hand, Dragoon wasn't even moving.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Samantha asked her own beyblade. "Dragoon, move! Create some distance!" Dragoon just stayed in the same spot as Herculeo chipped away at Dragoon's armour again and again. _What's happening? Why can't I control Dragoon? It's like he's not listening to me. Can he even listen to me? Now that I think about it, this is my first time beyblading, I have no idea how to control Dragoon, or even know if it has a bit-beast! How do I control it, with my mind?_

"Are you having trouble?" Sally asked worried. "My lightning is always hard to get past but..."

"Shut up! I'll cut your lightning!"

"Hey, I don't think that's possible... ah well! Alright Herculeo, now is about time. Unleash the mystic power of the stars themselves, the power hidden within the warrior Hercules; use our ultimate finishing move, **Dark Thunder, Black Lightning!**" Herculeo began sparking in black lightning. Samantha's medawatch started going off.

**Warning, immense power build up. Survival chance, 20%. Unkown medaforce active.**

_Oh great... _Herculeo began glowing and its bolt core began glowing black and red. From out of the bolt core, an enormous lion came out, a sphinx to be precise, made entirely of black energy with a red aura coming off of it and dark red eyes. Everything about it seemed sinister and out of character with its beyblader. Even more disturbing, as soon as it was released Sally's personality did a complete 180, and disturbingly enough, her pupils had narrowed to cat-like slits. In comparison to that huge figure before her, Samantha and Dragoon seemed like flies.

_Ok , for this to work I have to calm down and focus. Concentrate. I'm a Tochikan aren't I? I have control over all forms of power, including beyblades. I just have to find my beyblade's flow of energy and... ..._

Samantha spread her consciousness out across the entire stadium. The screams of the crowd drowned out as all she could feel was energy. She felt an extreme wave of power coming from Herculeo, and after a short moment of panic, calmed down and searched again. This time she felt the much smaller, almost insignificant centrifugal momentum coming from Dragoon. As if grasping for something in a dream, she clenched her hand, and then she could feel it. Samantha opened her eyes, not even noticing that they were closed.

"Now, go Dragoon!" Dragoon shot off after Herculeo who merely batted him into the air like a fly, making all that focus seem like it was for nothing. Samantha just smiled. Dragoon flipped in the air before heading straight back down towards the stadium. Herculeo looked up at Dragoon and roared at it. He zapped lightning at it just to find it had no effect.

"What?!" Sally exclaimed.

"Plastic doesn't conduct electricity very well," Samantha said smugly. "Sure, my blade is mainly metal, but compared to your blade it has way more plastic. Put together with his spin, he can cut straight through your lightning! I told you I'd cut it!"

"No way..." Dragoon smashed Herculeo on the head, bounced up and shot down towards the actual blade. With expert accuracy, Dragoon's base smashed into the Bolt Core on Herculeo, Sending the blade out of control. Dragoon bounced back up and off.

"Remember when you were hitting my blade that time?" Samantha said. "I didn't have enough control to get out of there, but it did have enough control to control how I got hit. I let you do that damage for this reason only. You ready Dragoon? Now, **Dragoon Storm attack!" **Another cyclone whipped up with enough force to match Herculeo's.

"Oh my gosh!" somebody screamed right next to Ikki's ear, making him jump out of his seat. He got up to see DC sitting there with popcorn.

"DC?" DC didn't seem to hear him.

"She wasn't getting hit, she was getting reformed! She let the hits from the heavier blade reshape her Beyblade's entire structure. Dragoon's attack ring is now shaped like a Formula one car spoiler, it creates downforce making Dragoon heavier, which is good. But what it really does is let him whip up gigantic tornadoes!"

The Storm blasted Herculeo, nearly knocking him out of the stadium.

"Useless! Herculeo won't be blown away by this gust!"

"You're forgetting something!" Samantha yelled above the howling wind. "I hit your bolt core just now, and with just enough force to loosen it. Your Herculeo bit-beast won't be able to stay stable after a hit like that!" True enough, the actual beyblade was now wobbling, but the top half was wobbling one way while the middle wobbled another way and the base yet another. The whole blade was going to fall apart like this. The storm was blowing out Herculeo's fire and lighting like it was a candle, finally blowing Herculeo himself away as he roared into the wind. The Bit-Beast vanished with the wind, leaving only the damaged beyblade wobbling in the centre of the stadium and Sally with no control over it. Sally's cheerful personality also seemed to have returned.

"Uh-oh, I'm in trouble now!" she said sheepishly.

"Heck ya you are! Finish it!" Dragoon darted towards Herculeo with wind ripping up the stadium. They collided, and the next thing that was seen was Herculeo's parts flying into the air and landing at Sally's feet, the Beyblade in pieces.

"Functions ceased! The winner is, Dragoon!" The crowd erupted into jubilant cheers as the battle was finished.

"Wow! What an upset!" Mike said from his stand. "To think that a third generation beyblade could match up to a metal fusion beyblade! And what's more, that Dragoon didn't even have a bit-beast!"

"But that's what beyblading is all about, rising up against impossible odds!" Samantha collapsed to her knees, suddenly feeling exhausted.

_I did it... I won..._

Sally picked up the bits of her beyblade and stuffed them into her pocket, especially examining the bolt core.

"You did a great job Herculeo, now you can rest up." Sally walked over to Samantha and extended her hand.

"Great job! You were awesome! Need a hand?" Sally pulled her up and they shook on it. The rest of the teams came to meet in the centre.

"Sally, you lost!" Kevin screamed in rage. "You were our trump card here, how could you let us down?"

"Cool it Kevin," Cyrus said. "She tried her best and we lost. It was all of our faults. We all lost at least one match. I guess we just need more training."

"Samantha you did it!" Ikki screamed in joy. "You beat Mystic Force, we can move on to the next round!"

"Knew I could count on you!" Leo said flashing her a smile and a thumbs up.

"I guess I was wrong about you," Akkia said with a small grin. "Great job Samantha. So, are we ready for the next match?" Samantha nodded her head.

"Yeah. Let's do it!"


	22. Digi-Modify!

**Disclaimer, clearly I do not own the Medabots, Beyblade or Digimon franchises, or any other notable series that may be briefly mentioned.**** So:**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This is ****SPIRIT! No… **_**SUPER SPIRIT!**_

**Chapter 22: Digi-Modify!  
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DC sat at the bench, the blood pumping through his veins like a fire hose. One spraying fire.

_It's been almost six years since that dark time... Six years since I made that promise... Well, now that I'm here I can't let myself be distracted... I can't just robattle for fun now, I've got to do research on that medal. How is it linked to the Helix medal, and is that a Tochikan artifact or monster sealed into a smaller form? I need to know..._

"DC!" somebody screamed in his face. DC awoke from his thoughts with a jerk, then put on a ridiculous smile.

"Hey Ikki, your team was awesome! I can't wait till my team goes up against them! But I'm telling you, the other guys on my team are some of the strongest on the whole continent! We won't lose!"

"Yeah, that's great, but what're you doing on our bench?" Ikki asked.

"Oh yeah, our team is next, then tomorrow is the second round of the American stage. Don't lose to anybody before then so we can battle in the third round!"

"I should say the same to you."

"Please, you seriously think I'll lose?" DC stood up from the bench and from the backroom came two other medafighters.

"DC, are you ready?" one of them said. He had an American accent and ghostly pale skin. He wore denim jeans and a black jacket. The girl next to him looked like she was only eight years old and was wearing a black T-shirt with stars on it and blue skinny jeans. She was holding a fluffy white puppy to her chest, the whole dog looking like a plush doll, its hind legs hanging down so it was only the upper part of its body being held. DC stood up and nodded, then looked down at the girl.

"What're you doing bringing her in here?" he asked. "Dogs shouldn't get so close to the action!"

"I know, but I couldn't just leave her behind!" she replied angrily. "She's gonna get a front row seat, right Friday?" The dog, Friday simply looked annoyed at being held as if she were a doll, then yapped at DC. DC shrugged his shoulders.

"Whatever, just make sure she doesn't run onto the stadium. We'll be disqualified if that happens. Will, where's Kay?" Will pointed to the backroom and from it came an overweight looking individual in baggy clothes, next to him a green medabot with a huge sword that could only be a Grand Slam. Ikki's blood nearly froze when he saw this look-alike and he was sure that Queen Bee from his medawatch could feel something familiar in the air.

"Yo, ready to go?" Kay asked, his voice deep and with a slight accent. DC nodded his head as Ikki's team left to a different bench nearby.

"Alright, which team are we up against?"

"Brace yourselves for this one boys," Kay began. "We're going up against American Legends: the BBA All-Starz. They're funded by the BBA, the MDC and believe it or not, even the US government themselves. They use the power of modern science and the best medabots and beyblades available that technology can dream up, and just to make it worse, they research the other team beforehand so that they knew exactly how to beat them. These guys aren't joking around. We mess up and they'll blow us right off the continent. Don't think I'm playing with ya, this is the stuff right here, so we're gonna need the strongest on our team to battle. Naturally, I'm gonna go first with Grandslam. DC, you're up next, then finally..."

"I'll go!" the girl screamed excitedly, raising an arm in the air, almost dropping Friday.

"No, you still aren't that great at robattles. Will is gonna go last." The girl glared at him angrily before crossing her arms.

"Like I care, go ahead and leave me out again! It's not like I even wanted to come with you!" She stuck out her tongue at Kay. Kay just chuckled and looked at DC.

"Now, let's do this!" They all huddled together and stuck their hands in the centre, even the girl. "Zulus, United! We'll never be divided! Break!" They split and proceeded to the stadium. Henry began introducing them.

"And here they come, the medafighting made up some of Africa's finest and the second strongest from Canada, here come the Zulu Warriors!" They entered, the other two just walking in normally while DC was soaking in all the applause until the girl jumped and hit him on the back of the head. The rest of the team sat down while Kay walked up to the edge of the stadium. "On the other hand we have the so far undefeated ultimate beyblading team, the BBA All-Starz!" The All-Starz walked up to the stadium, only one of them wearing a medawatch, and only one of the four with a launcher.

From the All-Starz's side, a fifteen year old with blonde hair approached the stadium. He had a striped T-shirt and blue ripped jeans, and on his bag was a blue and yellow backpack with two large extra drum shaped compartments on the top, slightly angled to the sides. His medawatch looked completely different to everybody else's, with two extensions protruding out the side. The boy stared down Kay with a determined look in his eyes.

"I'm not really into robattles the way you guys are, but I guess it's worth it if it means Dr Moshimo can get more data on medabots." From out of the bag, he pulled out what appeared to be a small miniature medabot, small enough to pass off as a large action figure. It was mainly white with two large blue circles flat on the side of his head and blue coloured feet.

_What's he gonna do with that? _Kay asked himself. The medafighter placed the toy on the floor standing upright. "Sorry I couldn't have just kept you active, I just wanted to save battery life." He pushed a button on his medawatch and suddenly, the circles on the side of his head popped out to reveal themselves to be large drum like ears. His arms also extended to have tiny childlike blue fists and his eyes lit up a light blue colour. The medabot looked around, then back at his medafighter.

"We already here, Tommy?" he asked with a choppy Japanese accent. Data clicked on everybody's medawatches on this strange medabot.

**Robotboy: Classified producer**

**Medafighter: Tommy Turnbull**

**Specialty: Weapon mastery**

**Medal Type: AI unit**

**Signature: Super Activate**

Kay stared at his data and the readings he was getting on it. What he could see wasn't very intimidating and highly outdated, but what worried him was the mass of data that was missing. It was like this medabot didn't even exist. Henry checked to see both combatants were ready.

"Medafighters ready? Medabots, Robattle!"

"Go, Grandslam!" The Grandslam leaped into the stadium, leaving a crater in the ground where it landed.

"Ro, go get him," Tommy said. Way faster than anyone could even see, Robotboy shot into the stadium, head-butting Grandslam square in the chest, nearly sending him out of the stadium if he hadn't dug his feet hard into the ground.

**Warning. 45% damage to head medapart. Leg medapart under stress. Excessive damage to lower servos, 35% damage.**

"What?!" Kay checked the data again. It was unreasonable. His medabot was a Grandslam, imported from Jamaica. A head-butt should _not _have done so much damage. Even worse, as soon as it attacked, its statistics spiked up insanely high. "Grandslam, use your sword and keep him at a distance." Grandslam pulled his gargantuan sword off of his back and held it in front of him in a ready position. Robotboy tried dashing at him again, the thrusters in his feet shooting him across at jet speeds, but he was simply batted aside with a mighty swing of Grandslam's blade. The blow sent him spiraling through the air before he steadied himself without a single scratch.

"Ro, use the afterimage strike!" Robotboy dashed towards Grandslam, and again Grandslam swung his sword down on him. Ro just simply seemed to vanish just before the hit. Grandslam turned around expecting a sneak attack, just to find he'd vanished again. He just kept appearing and dissapearing. It got to the point where there were multiple transparent copies of him

"Grand Slam attack, now!" Kay shouted. Grandslam jumped and smashed his sword into the ground on impact, sending out a massive shockwave in the process. Robotboy took a direct hit from the wave, but remained airborne, shielding his eyes. Once the shockwave cleared, Robotboy removed his arms from his face to reveal his eyes had turned red.

"Robotboy, Super Activate!"

_Aw no... _Kay's medawatch exploded on his arm as Robotboy's full power finally registered on it. Robotboy punched his fists together and stretched his limbs outwards. His torso expanded with darker, bulkier armour, yet still remaining sleek. His arms stretched outwards into powerful fists, his legs extending and gaining more powerful thrusters. His head morphed, armour stretching out of it, his mouth getting covered by a small gas mask piece while his 'drums' changed to big horns. He extended his fist forward to Grandslam and with a gleam, his transformation was complete. He was now at the very least two metres tall and had turned dark blue and black. Robotboy's eyes had turned a terrifying, emotionless red. Without warning, his right arm transformed into a rocket launcher and blew Grandslam sky high in a cloud of dust. Kay stared in disbelief as Grandslam landed next to him, charred and with an ejected medal.

**100% damage.**

"Functions ceased! The winner is, Robotboy!" Kay collapsed to his knees in disbelief.

_Grandslam... What happened to you? _He picked up the medal off of the ground and gazed at it blankly before stuffing it away. Robotboy walked slowly to him, his footsteps making a dull metal clank on the ground. He stopped, towering above Kay, staring down at him emotionlessly. Finally, he seemed to shrink down in size until he was just regular Robotboy again. He stared at Grandslam sadly, his drums drooping downwards.

"Sorry," Robotboy said. "Robotboy didn't mean to harm him too much." He flew back to Tommy who gave him a thumbs up.

"Great job Ro. Now I've got data on Grandslam, the same model that was terrorizing Medaropolis. Come on, lets go." Kay was still in shock at having lost so quickly. He didn't wake up from his thoughts until DC was shaking him violently as his match was about to begin.

"Dude! Snap out of it! It's my turn and you and Grandslam are kinda in the way!"

"Sorry..." Kay got up slowly, his hands trembling. "I'm sorry I lost so easily..." DC gave him a thumbs up and a huge grin.

"No sweat it! I'll just have to win my match! You just go rest up." Kay gripped DC's shoulder firmly and stared at him in the eyes with a hard look.

"Don't underestimate them. These guys are the most powerful opponents we've ever faced." DC just smiled and cracked his knuckles.

"Trust me when I say that me and Chrome have face some real monsters before. Don't worry, I won't let my guard down!" At the other side of the arena was an African-American beyblader wearing green _Skull Candy _headphones and a yellow jacket. The shirt underneath was plain black and his blue jeans looked torn up. In his right hand was a completely orange beyblade with a golden throwing star like blade in the middle, deadly enough to kill if it were actually sharpened like a weapon and not a toy. His left hand held what looked a bit like a microphone with something to grip beyblades on the side.

"Transport Chrotojil!" DC screamed as he pushed his medawatch. A flash of blue light filled the stadium. Once the light cleared, Chrome was in the stadium, a tiny crater in the ground where he landed. The other boy placed his beyblade inside his launcher and readied it. DC looked at the beyblade in confusion.

_That beyblade looks... totally not right! That looks like some bootleg item I'd find in the black market back in Zomba! And just to make it worse, it looks like a generation two rip off so it'll have ridiculously low stamina! How will it even battle?_

**Fake Dranzer: Super Spinners**

**Beyblader: Matthew Danube**

**Specialty: Beatbox Solo**

**Bit-Beast: Spiral Dranzer**

**Signature: Fire Arrow**

"Ready? 3...2...1... Battle!"

Instead of pulling the ripcord as you'd expect, Matthew instead pushed his launcher forward, keeping his ripcord in place. His beyblade shot into the stadium, sparks flying from its bearing.

"Chrome, don't let him scare you! Full power Gunpowder Missiles!" Chrome blasted the blade with four heavy-duty missiles just to find all of them cut to pieces on the ground with the beyblade charging at Chrome, engulfed in flames.

"Do it! Fire Arrow!" Chrome got hit square in the chest by what seemed to be a meteor strike, his chest armour shattered.

"Forget this... Gunmetal barrage!" Matthew got an evil gleam in his eye as he saw right through this attack.

"I know all about your techniques and how to beat them, so don't even bother fighting me!" Chrome aimed his head cannons at the orange beyblade. Matthew brought his launcher closer to his face and pushed a button on the handle. A Hip-hop beat started playing from the launcher. DC looked at him confused.

_Huh? What's music gonna do? Is he like, getting into the zone or something? It's not gonna stop the Gunmetal barrage though!_

A stream of missiles shot out from Chrome's headcannons, completely destroying everything they came into contact with. Every single shot exploded around the beyblade on target, engulfing it in a cloud of smoke. DC folded his arms in contempt.

"Ha! I win! So, what were you saying about knowing my every move?" Matthew wasn't paying attention. Instead he was simply bobbing his head up and down in time with the beat as if nothing had happened. The smoke cleared, and there his beyblade was still spinning, now hopping in time with the beat as well. "W-what? How is that possible?!" Matthew just smiled at him.

"You mean to tell me you didn't notice? The music isn't just for show, the frequencies being emitted are diffusing your missiles early, and nullifying their shockwaves. Explosions don't work on my Dranzer.

_Impossible… My finishing move is useless here!_

"Who care? Chrome, pop this fool!"

**Warning, medal deficiency halting progress. Cool down in progress.**

Chrome collapsed to the floor, sparks flying from his medaparts. Matthew began laughing.

"You seem pretty strong, but you just got unlucky when you ran into us. Dranzer, now's the time! Show yourself!"

**Warning, medaforce active: Giga Flame Drill attack.**

"Giga what?!" DC screamed in shock as he saw the energy readings from the beyblade spike. The beyblade began glowing red hot, a thin stream of fire spiraling up off of the beyblade. From out of the beyblade, a massive red phoenix emitting a golden aura rose as if awakening from a deep sleep. It's tail feathers instead were gigantic jagged ripcords merging together at the end to form one huge ripcord the thickness of a man's torso. It's talons were each small drills instead of points and its golden eyes seemed to pierce straight through you. Damage began to register on Chrome before he was even getting touched. The plastic in the arena and on Chrome's medawatch began melting from the intense heat, the air-conditioning doing nothing to alleviate their suffering.

"Let's do this Dranzer!" Matthew screamed, his launcher vibrating and glowing with heat, the speakers emitting the music completely fried by now. **"****Giga Flame Drill!" **Dranzer flew up into the air, practically bleeding fire as he did so. He corkscrewed the air as he made the return trip down to Chrome, fire swirling around him like a hurricane, transforming until it actually did look like an enormous red glowing drill. Chrome feebly put up his arms to try and defend. The attack tore right through him, scorching all of his medaparts and shredding his arms completely. Chrome's arms went limp.

**100% damage, functions ceased.**

DC stood stock still. Unmoving. His surroundings just faded away along with the huge Dranzer phoenix. The only things he could see were Chrome and Matthew as the realization that he was out hit him.

_I… lost… I've let my whole team down… We can't proceed anymore because we lost two rounds, and it's all my fault…d_

The beyblade went back up the arena side, ramping up and into Matthew's hand.

"Sorry, but you never stood a chance against us. Better luck next time!" The sound of the announcers never reached DC's ears as he walked back to his team. Natalie looked at him, not with dissapointment, but with sorrow.

"DC…" she began.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly before walking away on his own. The final match was barely even a contest. Will transported a Snowbro while the enemy transported a Cyandog, both regular medabots, and yet Snowbro was destroyed in one shot to the head. The whole team left the stadium, their heads hanging low. Ikki looked towards Metabee and Metabee back at him.

"Metabee, you know what we've gotta do don't you?"

"I know, we've got to Metabee-bop them!" he replied, his optics digitally showing flames.

"And it looks like that is the end of today's matchups," Mike said. "See you all next week for the conclusion of the American section! After that, the battles will continue in South Africa!" The stadium began to slowly empty as people began to leave.

"A whole week?" Metabee screamed. "I can barely wait that long for a new episode of my favourite soap operas to show!"

"Metabee, don't tell me you still watch those?" Ikki asked as they also got up to leave."

"I forgot every single episode, so I've been watching the whole series again, from episode one! Reliving the experience baby!" Ikki shook his head as they left the stadium.

. . .

The sun setting in the background was mainly blocked by huge skyscrapers and the noise of the traffic rushing by. Ikki, Metabee, Samantha and Puttycat were walking back, Ikki and Metabee carrying huge shopping bags as they marched back to their apartment. Trailing behind them were Leo and his Medabots, not really focusing on them.

"Samantha, tell me again why we're carrying _your _shopping?" Ikki asked.

"And for that matter, didn't only _girls _go shopping?" Metabee added. "As in, real girls? Like not you?"

"Shut up!" Samantha said, hitting him on the back of the head. "These aren't just stupid bags of clothes, these are all filled with medaparts so I can upgrade Puttycat!" Samantha said with a smile.

"I know they're medaparts, that's why they're so heavy!" Ikki whined, almost dropping the two bags in his left arm. The boxes were all stuffed in to the point of overflowing in the bags on his left, while the ones on the right had a random assortment of second-hand parts. "Are you sure buying all these parts is such a good idea?" he asked. "At least half of those are male medaparts, the other quarter are kilobot parts, and the remaining parts are both male and kilobot parts. This always goes badly for you."

"I know, but this time I know what I'm doing, so don't try and stop me! I wanna make sure they can't underestimate Puttycat ever again!" Puttycat looked uneasily at Metabee.

"Should I be worried about this?" Puttycat asked.

"You have no idea how many times she's nearly destroyed Peppercat like that!" Metabee whispered. "I'd suggest making yourself scarce. Only way to stay safe around her!" Puttycat looked up at Samantha worriedly before sighing, accepting whatever fate was in store for her. They kept walking until they were out of the city centre, all of the traffic now seemingly evaporated as they neared the neighbourhood they were living in. Suddenly, Metabee and Putty cat stopped. Ikki and Samantha turned around to see what was wrong.

"Samantha… my medal feels funny," Puttycat said. Metabee's eyes had mysteriously turned purple again.

"Someone, or something is here… Ikki, step back." The medawatch with Queen Bee in it began to glow.

"Ikki you idiot, what're you doing?" she said. Who's there that's got so much power?" From behind a tree, a towering individual stepped forward, forcing everybody to shrink away from him because of his presence alone. His hair was slicked backwards and his powerful muscles were apparent. His piercing green emerald eyes looked straight into Ikki's, almost challenging him. He then looked at Samantha. As soon as he looked into Samantha's eyes, she felt her heart jolt as if electrocuted. Those eyes that seemed to capture her… He looked back at Ikki, barely even noticing Samantha's cheeks going red.

"Are you three members of team Raging Beetle?" he asked.

"Yeah… why do you ask?" Leo said, now stepping forwards, Blackbeetle and Saikachis already transported. The figure opposite them closed his eyes then opened them again. He brought forth from around his neck something that looked a bit like a stylized Gameboy. The device only had two buttons visible on it and the top half of it was rounded. The buttons and edges of the small screen at the front were black.

"So she was right… and that means that I can't let you guys pass here!" From behind the tree as well came what looked like a small yellow dinosaur with a large head and long clawed arms with red criss-crossing wristbands. It's large green eyes looked up at the individual next to him, then at the medafighters.

"W-what is that?!" Ikki screamed taking several steps back. The monster frowned and looked up at the person who seemed to be his partner.

"I don't know Ryuga, these guys don't look like they'd burn down a building," the monster said in a childish voice.

"It _talks?!_" Samantha said in disbelief. "The monster talks?!" The monster sighed.

"Why does everyone always say that? I'm _not _a monster, I'm a Digimon! A _digital _monster! Technically a monster but not really one." The figure, Ryuga, clenched his fists, controlling his anger.

"Don't try to play dumb with me, you guys tried to kill my sister! It's because of you that she's the way she is now. We've already had the roof fall down on our heads in flames before, we don't need it again!" Another monster fell from the sky, landing softly next to him. This one instead was dark purple with black zebra stripes around its ears and seemed to be a wolf, not a dinosaur. A red upside triangle was on its forehead. Looking carefully, you could see a small pair of bat wings on his back.

"Agumon, don't bother arguing with him," the second monster said to the first.

"Dorumon, but what if they're good people?" Agumon asked. "We can't just attack them!"

"They're not," Ryuga said. "Didn't you see this?" He pressed a button on the device in his hand and there on it were Ikki, Samantha, Leo, Koji and Akkiana in a building, an office maybe, pouring cans of oil on everything in sight. The group watched in horror as there look-alikes lit the area up, escaping before the flames could get at them. The flames quickly spread, burning everything in sight before the video went fuzzy and stopped. "They weren't edited when I checked and one of the people we found accidentally mentioned your names. There's no doubt about it.

"The video doesn't lie," Metabee said.

"Metabee! Do you really think that was us?" Ikki asked in shock.

"Well it could be, it's hard evidence!"

"Obviously somebody is trying to frame us…"

"That's enough!" Ryuga interrupted. "Agumon, now!" Agumon opened his mouth wide and aimed it at Metabee.

"_Pepper Breath!" _he yelled as a fire ball rocketed out of it, blasting Metabee full on in the chest. Metabee bowled over backwards before stopping by a fence, unable to move.

**Warning, burn damage dealt to systems. Systems unprepared for shock, sneak attack bonus. 48% damage to head medapart. 20% damage to all other medaparts. Unable to continue, recalibrating balance.**

"What're you doing?!" Ikki asked, bringing his medawatch up to his face, preparing to transport Queen Bee. Leo raised a hand to stop him.

"Ikki, no. He's too powerful for you. I'll handle it." Ikki looked up at Leo, Leo's eyes determined as he stepped forward, the two giants now facing eachother, almost seeming like brothers.

"I don't really know what you're talking about," Leo began. "But as the Team Leader I can't let you harm my team mates in any way. I don't know what kind of monsters those are but I'll stop them, then I'll stop you!" Ryuga smiled as he looked at his counterpart.

"It looks like talk isn't going to help any of us here does it? We'll let our fists do the talking!"

"Or our Digimon," Dorumon said as his claws lengthened, ready to fight. Dorumon rushed straight into action, clawing rapidly at Blackbeetle. Everybody human scattered from the immediate area as Blackbeetle began firing, stray bullets hitting lampposts and other objects. Blackbeetle cleared some distance so she could get a better shot.

"Not on my watch," Dorumon said as he charged up a silver energy ball in his mouth. "_Dash Metal!" _Dorumon shot out the blast, sending it for Blackbeetle. Saikachis pushed Blackbeetle out of the way at the last second, then punched the blast away, sending it straight up into the air and out of sight.

**Right arm damage 62% damage.**

"Leo, it's like punching a wrecking ball!" Saikachis said, clutching his fist. If that hits directly…"

"I know I know. Saikachis, charge the prominence, Blackbeetle, missiles." Missiles streamed out of Blackbeetles cannons, detonating around the slower Agumon's feet while Dorumon jumped out of the way. Ryuga pulled out a playing card from his pocket. He twirled it around his fingers before slicing it through a slot in the device in his other hand, stopping while it was inside the device as if he'd met some kind of resistance.

"Digi-modify!" he said, sparks flying from the card as it went through it. What looked exactly like computer data began flying around him as if a giant computer was reprogramming something. "Rock armour activate!" Agumon's yellow skin rapidly turned grey, then his whole body stiffened into rock. More missiles assailed him, covering him in a cloud of smoke.

"I think we got him…" Blackbeetle stopped mid-sentence with a muffled cry as a metallic sphere from Dorumon hit her head on. As the smoke cleared, Agumon was still in perfect condition, though now immobilised and made of rock. Ryuga swiped another card.

"Programme Pause!" he shouted, reversing Agumon back to his old self with the sound of cracking rocks. He swiped another card. "Digi-modify, Digmon's Drill!" Dorumon's claws both turned into drills as he roared with rage. Before Leo could even say 'uh-oh' another card was swiped. "Hyperspeed activate!" Agumon began glowing red and suddenly disappeared. He reappeared behind Saikachis, headbutting him hard before disappearing again and reapering, biting Blackbeetle's arm.

"That's it, I've had it with these stupid cards!" Leo screamed. "Now Saikachis, get that Dorumon before he can use his drills!" Saikachis faced Dorumon and before he even had a chance to attack, Dorumon got a direct hit from the Prominence, blasting him into someone's garden. Ryuga smiled, seemingly forgetting the reason they were fighting in the first place.

"You're pretty good actually, for a medafighter," he said taking yet another card out.

"It gets a lot better than that you know," Leo replied with a smile.

"Sadly, I've got to end this soon." He twirled the card around his fingers again before stopping it. He swiped it through the device in his hand. "**Digi-Modify! Digivolution!**" The Agumon began glowing with energy along with the digivice itself. Agumon became circled by large yellow data streams as he began to hover in the air. His skin seemed to be getting burned off from all of the power.

"**Agumon Digivolve to:" **he began as new flesh began to pile up on top of him, replacing his old skin. His head gained an armoured black carapace with two horns where his ears would have been and one large horn over his nose. He swished his massive tail, clearing away the data sphere around him. He was now far more dinosaur like and was fourteen feet tall, his blade sharp teeth deadly enough to slice clean through human flesh. "**GeoGreymon!" **he said with an echoing roar.

"Oh come on!" Leo yelled in exasperation.

"Go GeoGreymon!" Ryuga yelled. "Horn Impulse!" The Greymon rushed forward, hitting Saikachis square in the chest, shredding through his armour. Blackbeetle got back up on shaky legs just to get struck back down by a huge fireball.

_This is bad, I've never fought a Digimon before, how am I supposed to defeat them? _The dinosaur took a lumbering step forward, just a few metres away from Leo himself. Leo readied his fists even though he knew he'd never be able to do a thing to a monster like that. Just then, the device in Ryuga's hand began to beep in alarm.

"Ryuga, where are you?! Those Raging Beatle guys came back! I need your help now!" a voice said over the device.

"That's impossible, I'm fighting them right-" Ryuga stopped mid-sentence and looked at the people he was fighting. He wasn't stupid, by now he could tell what was really going on. "Ok, I'm on my way." He pressed a button and it shut off. He clambered on GeoGreymon's back while Dorumon recovered from the impact he'd taken. "Well then, it looks like I was the one who was wrong this time. Well, for the meantime we'll go our separate ways and who knows? Maybe we'll meet again somewhere." He turned around, giving them a peace sign, then left, leaving giant dinosaur footprints in his wake. Ikki looked at Leo in confusion, Leo at Samantha, and Samantha at Ikki.

"What was that all about?" Ikki asked.

"I don't know," Leo said. "But something tells me that's not the last we'll see of them…"


	23. Enter the Digital World

**This is depressing… The super huge delay is entirely my fault. For most of that delay, I had found some online game called Digimon Masters that I had really gotten into playing. When I should've been typing I was busy playing with Digimon. Online. Which is AWESOME by the way! On the bright side it gave me a cool idea of how the Digital World should be laid out in my fic so that's good I suppose. The remainding time when I was certain I could finish it within a week, I get hit with a wave of emotional nonsense which I have a strong dislike to… Oh the drama… For this delay, a personal apology to ShadowLDrago who I not only promised a chapter to almost two weeks ago, but also didn't answer once asked about it. Well anyway…**

**Ryuga, Hiro and Yami belong to ShadowLDrago, all of the Digimon belong to Akiyoshi Hongo and Bandai and Shounen and stuff… Not mine either way… Plot is mine though! And the epic stuff! Anyway:**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This! Is! Spirit!**

**Chapter 23: Enter the Digital World (Digimon, Digital Monsters)**

The group was sat around a restaurant table, eating pizzas, burgers, and other fast food junk, the medabots except for Puttycat all elsewhere. Leo just stared blankly at his plate, not really focused on what was going on around him. Akkia looked at him with concern and clicked her fingers in his face. No response. She snapped louder and then stopped. She got up close to him, took a deep breath and screamed ridiculously loudly into his ear. Leo stumbled off of his chair in alarm, and then recomposed himself.

"What was that for?" he asked, still clutching his ears.

"You've not really been yourself recently. You're even more quiet than usual. You haven't even touched your food. Is this about the Digimon?"

"In part, yeah," Leo admitted. "I just can't see any way to actually beat them. If we get unlucky and meet them in the tournament, I'm not so sure I can beat them. I feel like I'm somehow letting the team down, practically losing to Ryuga. He seems to even be a better version of _me_. I know everybody loses sometimes but in front of them, it might lower their morale before the next battle."

"Leo, look at them for a second," Akkia said. Leo looked up from his contemplation. Ikki and Koji were both standing up, gritting their teeth, Puttycat trying her best to separate them and resolve the fighting, Samantha seemingly cheering them on to fight. "It doesn't look like their morale has dropped. If anything, they're more eager than ever to show everyone just what their made of. Stop shouldering everything onto your own shoulders and trust them a bit more. After all, they _have _saved the world a bit more times than the average human has!"

"I know, but it still doesn't change the fact that we have no real method to defeat Digimon. It's like they're not even from this world."

"I don't think they are by what you've said about them, but even if we're trumped in power, you still have your coach, and I intend to make you guys at least smart enough to know how to beat him. Finish eating, relax a bit, and then find me in my room with the others. I've got a little surprise for you all." Akkia stood up, then left the restaurant, leaving Leo with the others. Leo let out a deep breath.

_I guess I should relax just a little…_

"Hurry up and finish eating. Apparently there's a surprise for us all."

. . .

"Hey Ikki, what do you think the surprise is anyway?" Metabee asked.

"Beats me. Just make sure you don't touch anything in Akkia's room," Ikki said. "She wanted to rip my head off when I just moved a pillow on her chair." Ikki looked back down the stairs he had just climbed. Nobody was there. "It looks like we're the first people here. Come on, let's enter." Ikki knocked on the door and waited for a reply.

"Come in, come in," came back the muffled reply. Ikki opened the door and froze on the spot. Inside Akkia's room was Ryuga, sat in a chair by her desk, searching for something on her laptop. He looked at Ikki and gave him a thumbs up.

"You!" both Ikki and Metabee screamed at the same time pointing fingers at him.

"Surprised to see me?" he asked. "Sorry about last time, it seems somebody clearly doesn't like you guys very much." Next to Ryuga was a tanned teenager with soft hazelnut eyes, brown hair and a blue tracksuit, and on the other side of him was a girl who looked a bit younger than Ryuga, but still rather tall. She had long raven hair reaching all the way down to her waist and wore a black rather revealing vest and black bum shorts. She had bewitching emerald green eyes that could captivate anybody. It took an effort for Ikki to just tear his eyes off of her, going red in the face just being in the same room. Agumon and Dorumon were both seated on Akki's bed. Metabee didn't even need to be given any orders as he jumped in the room immediately, pointing his laser cannons at Dorumon, Dorumon jumping up from the bed, his claws extended.

"Haha! You fool," Dorumon said, sounding unusually serious for such a childish though still ferocious looking Digimon. "Your lasers cannot harm me, you should know that by now."

"Calm down Dorumon, we're not here to fight," Ryuga said.

"Ikki don't worry, I invited them in," Akkia said. "You already know Ryuga, and this is Hiroshi and Yami," referring to the boy and the girl.

"Akkia, these are the guys who attacked us last night!" Ikki said.

"I know. It looks like they were set up to think that we were the criminals who tried to kill them. I know Hiro here from a while back so I trust them on this one." The boy in the jumpsuit, Hiro, turned to Ikki with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, it was my fault really. It really looked like it was you guys who had done it."

"But how if we were nowhere near you guys?" Ikki asked.

"Ikki, do you remember the beret brothers you told me about?" Akkia asked. Ikki paused for a few seconds then nodded his head. "Well, it seems somebody else was using the same impersonation techniques to act like us and damage our reputations. That way we'd be attacked and hopefully be put out of the competition. According to him, they were the guys who tried to hijack the plane when we arrived here."

"But can we really trust these guys?" Metabee asked.

"I should be asking that question, with that gun pointed at me and all," Dorumon said. Agumon stepped between them trying to calm them both down, and failing. Just in time, the rest of the group entered the room. Leo, DC, Samantha, Koji, Puttycat and Sumilidon. Samantha and Leo's reactions were the same as Ikki's once they saw Ryuga, but DC seemed to have the most hazardous one of all of them. He glanced around the room before his gaze stopped on the girl. His eyes widened and he said;

"Yo those are massive! Are those… are those even _real? _Can they even get that size? I mean… Aaaah!" All of the men in the room turned away in universal sympathy as he received an incredibly powerful kick to the nether regions. He crumpled to the floor doubled over in excruciating pain, the girl with an annoyed look on her face.

"Please, refrain from doing or saying anything completely _stupid! _Keep it PG13 please."

"Y…yes ma'am…" he whimpered in pain.

"Only if I permit, understand?" she said with a wink.

"Yes ma'am…" DC replied weakly.

"Moving on…" Akkia said, ignoring DC's limp form on the floor, despair and pain seemingly oozing out of him. "I've just explained to Ikki, I invited all of these guys myself. Don't worry, they aren't bad guys. Your previous encounter was just a big misunderstanding. The reason I called you all in here is to do rare medals, especially yours, Metabee."

"Huh? Mine?" Metabee asked in confusion.

"Yes, and more importantly, its connection to the Digimon. Or in fact, what a Digimon even is!" Hiro cleared his throat, taking over from Akkia.

"Okay, now you're probably wondering why there are monsters running around inside this room, or why there are even such monsters in the first place! Well, don't panic. These guys wouldn't harm a fly, but perhaps they'd make an exception for Flymon!" he chuckled to himself until he noticed the lack of laughter in the room and cleared his throat. "These guys here are creatures called 'Digital Monsters' or Digimon for short. They're pretty much collections of various computer data solidified into living breathing intelligent organisms, evolving in pretty much the same way as animals in our world evolve, only much faster. Their origins are rather ambiguous in nature, but humans probably first became able to access them when the first virtual pets were created." Dorumon took a few steps towards Metabee who was still tensed up. Metabee jumped backwards out of the room and aimed his rifle at his forehead.

"Look pal, I'm not really a fan of wolves, so you'd best keep your distance!" Metabee said cautiously. Dorumon snickered.

"I'm not gonna eat you so calm down! I don't think metal tastes nice anyway..."

"Wait, Digimon can eat metal?" Metabee asked in shock.

"I've heard that some can! We've got teeth sharp enough to, wanna see?" Dorumon flashed his teeth at Metabee. Metabee jumped back even further, crashing into the wall. Dorumon blinked innocently twice at him, showing none of his previous ferociousness from before. "What's wrong? Are you scared of dogs?"

"No!" Metabee shouted back. "I just prefer Salty to other dogs!"

"But I'm not a dog, I'm a Digimon!" Dorumon continued chasing Metabee down the hallway playfully while Metabee ran in terror.

"See? They really just want to play with us," he said with a laugh. "As you can imagine, there are people who would want to harness the vast power of Digimon for themselves, just as there are people who would want to use rare medals for their own ends."

"Like the attack in Medaropolis last year," Ikki said. "They said they were looking for anything Tochikan,including Samantha and powerful rare medals."

"Yeah pretty much. Apparently, the first time that humans went to the digital world it was only a few kids, and that was to save it! But we're not here to discuss digital history. We have a bigger problem, and it concerns the tournament. Someone is trying to eliminate the competition using any underhanded tactics they can. You weren't the first ones."

"Other competitors have been dropping out of the competition for various reasons," Ryuga said picking up on Hiro. "Injured players, caught cheating, stolen medals, we would be able to pass it off as coincidence but they all happened with a gap of three days between them."

"Well that still doesn't link them to us," Leo said. "It could be the Beret brothers part II, and it doesn't explain why they'd go to such lengths to get us to fight you."

"Well here's the link," Ryuga said, his eyes cold and distant. "Everybody who was removed from the competition either had a bit-beast, a rare medal, or a Digimon that can reach Ultimate level. And even worse, the ones with rare medals all have beetle medals, like your medabots. Your whole team is in danger."

"There's more to it than that," Hiro said. "These guys are untraceable. The government can't even keep tabs on them, it's like they appear for a moment, send someone out, then disappear again."

"Hey yeah, I remember hearing something like that from Sakura," DC spoke up. "It's driving her crazy cause all of the adults have no idea what to do and she isn't even _allowed _to help them since she's so young! She said it's like they're everywhere at once!"

"I think I know how they're doing it," Hiro said. "They're moving through the digital world to get from place to place. Distance isn't always what it seems to be in the digital world once compared with the."

"Let me guess, we have to jump into the digital world," DC said with a mischievous smile, adjusting his cap on his head. "And you guys would like some backup, preferably people who have faced off against these guys, and won. In that case, look no further! For here in front of you is the world's strongest team! Don't worry about what I need in return though, I just wanna take them down after what happened back in Japan!" Hiro nodded his head.

"I'm sorry about dragging you guys into this, but you'll know roughly how the enemy fights, so are the world's best shot at stopping them."

"Right, glad you understand," Ryuga said.

"Hey! Nobody said _I _understand!" Metabee shouted. "We've still got a match coming up next week!"

"Then we've got a week to kick them out of the digital world," Leo said. "All we have to do is get them out, from there the Select Corps can take care of them. Plus, if the Digital World is where Digimon come from, then we can't let them stay there causing trouble for them."

"And if they got even one Mega level Digimon on their side..." Ryuga began before interrupting himself. "Well, we've got about three ways to get into the Digital World, maybe a few more. The first is by finding a natural Digital gate lying around, normally around areas with a lot of power, and then jumping in. The second is by opening up a Digi-Port on any personal computer using a D-3 digivice. Digivices are basically like medawatches and make it easier for Digimon to evolve or Digivolve. The third method is to enter the through a D-Terminal. Hiro has a D-3 so we can get in using that. I still have things to take care of so I'll join you later through a D-Terminal. We'll be leaving as soon as we can so make sure to tell your parents that you won't be staying with Dr Aki for a few days. Go home, pack lightly, only the essentials, and meet back here in the next hour.

. . .

Everyone returned on time, Ikki only equipped with a backpack with a few days' supply of sandwiches and some spare clothes. Leo brought most of the food and a first aid kit, Akkia brought a compass, telescope and matches, while DC, while scratching the back of his head while apologizing, forgot to bring anything at all except for his trusty red cap and a few bars of chocolate that he refused to share with anybody. Apart from that, everyone else came with roughly Ikki's equipment, and a compass each. The only person missing was Koji.

"Sorry I can't come just yet," Koji had said to Ryuga. "I still have things to take care of, and it would be disrespectful if I told my father I'm going somewhere without at least 24 hour prior notice. I'll catch up with you later. After all, without me, Ikki will probably get you all hopelessly lost!"

With everyone gathered, Hiro turned around to face them.

"Everyone, place your medabot's medals back inside your medawatches," he said. "It might not be safe to jump with so much electronic equipment at once into the digital world. You can transport the data from your medaparts later. After all, your medaparts _are _connected to some kind of network! As long as they can link up to a network, they can enter the digital world."

"Umm… Do we _have to _go in our medawatches?" Metabee said uneasily.

"No, of course not," Hiro said with a playful smile. Metabee let out what sounded like an exhaled breathe of relief. "Only if you don't want to be scattered as random bits of computer data all over the world." Metabee froze momentarily, then sunk his head in disappointment.

"Ok, I get it. Do what you've gotta do Ikki," he said.

"Sorry about this Metabee," Ikki said. "We don't really have much of a choice here." He pushed a button on his medawatch+ and out popped Metabee's medal. "So we're ready now?"

Hiro, Akkia, Leo, Ryuga, Samantha, Yami, Dorumon, Agumon and Ikki all stood in front of the computer, all their medals inside medawatches. Hiro held up his digivice to the monitor.

"Digi-port open," he said. A small irregular green window that looked more like a jigsaw puzzle than a computer program opened up. A bright light shone in front of the screen. He screamed out something that was lost to Ikki's ears as everything around him faded and shifted away from himself into the background. The colours around him seemed to drip away from him like wet paint as he was sucked into the computer screen itself. What Ikki could still see was a blur of what could only be computer data and digital coding. Just a few feet ahead of him was what looked like his shadow come to life. Running up and down the shadow was a green horizontal laser light, as if it was scanning it. While still being scanned, the shadow pressed itself against Ikki as the laser scanned him, then released him and pushed him, sending him spinning. Before he could get used to the wash of sensations, he suddenly found the ground beneath his feet. He stumbled a bit before collapsing on the ground dizzied. Ikki looked behind him and there was a TV monitor there, flashing images of what looked like Akkia's room. Eight blue lights began to form on the screen. Moving away just in time, Ikki stumbled backwards as the lights seemed to jump out of the screen, materializing into the whole team.

"So, here we are," Yami began, gesturing all around her. "Welcome to the Digital World!" Ikki took a second to take in his surroundings. All around him was a dense forest filled with trees and plants he'd never before seen, or hoped to see. Up above the sky was a wash of colours instead of a deep even shade of blue. The clouds, if they truly were clouds were even shades of violet. Streams of tree trunk sized digital code danced across the sky as if wrapping itself around the entire digital world. Far off in the distance, high in orbit was an iridescent blue planet-like object with purple lasers blasting out of it. All around him, nature thrived in excess, making the human world seem dead by comparison.

"Whoa, this is the Digital World," Ikki said, half to himself.

"Yup, and you're gonna love it!" an unknown voice said. Ikki turned around to see a small, blue imp like creature in front of him. The Digimon, as that was the only thing it could be, was about three quarters of Ikki's height. It was completely blue except for its belly and around its mouth. Emblazoned on its forehead was a yellow V and on the top of his head were two rounded pointy ears. Where his nose should've been was a tiny horn that looked like it hadn't finished growing yet. It had a short tail with spikes along the spine and its large green eyes looked at Ikki with mischief in them. The Digimon grabbed Ikki's hand and energetically began pumping it up and down in a violent handshake. "Hiya, nice to meet you!" It said. "My name is Veemon, but my friends call me Veemon! I don't get human visitors often except for Hiro so sorry if I'm a little of kilter today!"

"You're always a little off kilter Veemon," Hiro said, ruffling the top of his head and ears playfully. He turned to address everyone else.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet my partner in crime, Veemon!" he said. "I've known him ever since I was a kid and as far as I know he's harmless, so don't be scared! He'd sooner steal your lunch than a single hair on your head!"

"Hey, that's rude!" he said. "I can fight to you know! And I totally would steal a hair on your head, **and **your lunch!" Ikki just barely noticed that Veemon had a slight lisp, 'steal' sounded a bit like 'shteal'. Even more weird was that Hiro had lisp to, or rather a lizp. Occasionally if he listened carefully, Ikki would hear his the letter S with a Z instead.

"I'm just wondering," Ikki began, whispering into his medawatch. "Whether it's a good idea to do this with Veemon as well…"

"Aw come on Ikki," Metabee said. "He looks pretty fun! You know, you've been really tense lately, you've gotta lighten up a little!"

"Whatever you say Metabee…" Veemon stopped speaking mid-sentence once he spotted Dorumon near the back with Agumon. He dashed past Hiro and Ikki, and shoving his way past everybody, despite all the grunts of protest, he arrived in front of Dorumon, staring him hard in the eyes with aggression.

"Long time no see Dorumon," he said, a cocky grin on his face. "I expected you to have gotten a little stronger once you'd come back, but all you've done is put on weight!"

"What did you think would happen?" Dorumon asked, trying to justify himself. "The medabots really aren't much good for training on…"

"Hah! That's no excuse!" Veemon interrupted. "As my rival you have to make sure you keep training, or else I'll get ahead of you! I'm nearly at your level so don't get left behind!"

"Since when were you my rival?" Dorumon asked, genuinely confused.

"Since the day we first met!" Veemon answered back heatedly. "Don't slack off!" Hiro cleared his throat loudly, getting Veemon's attention.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but don't forget why we're here," he said. "We've got three main objectives. Find the enemy ship. It's probably another saucer like the one you guys took down. Objective two is to remove the enemy from the Digital World completely. From there all you have to do is locate them in the real world, and your mission is complete. Veemon, what did you discover while I was gone?"

"Uh…" Adjusting himself to the change in atmosphere, he began. "Well, I was doing a little bit of snooping around here and there, some scouting in a few places and I came up with some information. Firstly, the guys you're chasing are after a Super-Ultimate Digimon, and not just any either. Apparentlyit's some kinda super, SUPER-Ultimate descendant from some kind of ancient being of darkness. I don't even think it's a Digimon! I couldn't get much more information out of them other than the word 'Tochukaso' and something to do with stuff burning."

"Any idea where they are now?" Hiro asked.

"They should be somewhere on File Islandright now, they're looking for the remnants of the source of evil… Look, I'm not an encyclopaedia! I just tossed in a little something here and there and got the information you wanted! Be lucky I even stuck my neck out for you in the first place! Gatomon is in a village nearby gathering info there. She'll probably need help so we should probably be going to help her out."

"Alright, just wait a second…" Ikki said. He pushed buttons on two of his three medawatches. "Transport Metabee, Windstorm," Sure enough, two blue balls of static electricity materialized in front of him, and within seconds both of them were standing before the group. Veemon jumped backwards in surprise.

"Whoa! Where did you guys come from?" Veemon asked in shock.

"We were here the whole time," Windstorm said stretching out her joints. "We were just inside Ikki's medawatch while you were all talking. Not fair for me either, I was just getting comfy in there…" Veemon kept staring at the two of them in confusion.

"So you're Digimon from the human world? I didn't know there were Digimon apart from the ones here…"

"We're not Digimon," Metabee said. "We're Medabots! Completely different! There can only be one Metabee!" Veemon tilted his head in confusion.

"Huh? I don't really get it… So you're not Digimon, but you're not humans either… So you're like Digimon, but not Digimon? Like, you can't Digivolve?"

"We're not even sure what digivolving is…" Windstorm said shrugging her shoulders. "I guess Medabots and Digimon don't really meet up much do they?"

"Hmm…" Veemon circled around the pair of them like they were some kind of curiosity before finally giving up on trying to figure out whatever secrets they held. "Ok, well anyway, my name's Veemon!"

Leo and Samantha transported there medabots to, adding three more to the mix as everybody introduced themselves. Just then, Ikki noticed something was missing.

"Hey guys, did anybody notice that DC and Chrome were missing?"

"But they did jump in with us," Leo said with a frown.

"And even more weird," Hiro began. "Yami is also gone. Maybe there was a lot of traffic on the way? No seriously, there might've actually been a lot of traffic coming through the digi-port. We must've gotten separated going through it."

"Well waiting around here isn't going to help out anybody is it?" Akkia said. "Lead the way Veemon, hopefully we can find that idiot along the way…"

. . .

DC and Yami both landed at the same time as the first group did, but instead of in a dense forest, on top of a large hill populated with trees here and there. Yami landed, a little off balance, on her two feet while DC crashed face first onto the dirt. Recovering unnaturally quickly, he straightened his hat, and before doing anything else, released Chrome from his medawatch. He and Chrome energetically looked side to side, as if making sure everything was clear. They ogled and awed at all the lights and streams of data in the sky, the huge swooping birds and phoenixes in the sky that could only be Digimon, the very _feel _of the earth seemed to impress him.

"This place is weird!" DC concluded. "The plants… Their all made of computer data! I mean, I didn't really believe it when you said there was a whole digital world but… I cut a bit of a plant open, there were no xylem vessels, or phloem vessels! It looked more like the back of my phone memory card! And check over there!" he screamed, pointing to the distance where there appeared to be a field of gigantic car sized calculators buried in the ground. "Who plants calculators? Who even _makes _giant calculators?! And we entered… Through a computer! This is just… Just… Pinch me, somebody pinch me… My arms are shaking too much to do it myself!"

"Calm down bro," Chrome said, trying to steady him, and patting him on the back. "It's all real alright, and you don't want me to pinch you. I've got metal fingers you know."

"I know, I know, but its DIGITAL! We're all DIGITAL! Like, if somebody knew our address, could they download us? Could they watch us running around on YouTube? Maybe my human Genome can be seen as a text message, or somehow heard as a ringtone… Maybe your battle data could-" DC froze on the spot after seeing Yami staring at him strangely, as if wondering if he was all there in the head. Amazingly, even through his dark skin, DC started blushing a deep rose red and took a few steps sheepishly, his usual overconfidence stopped on the spot. "Umm… That might've seemed weird… hehe, sorry about seeming so weird. And sorry for that comment earlier, I didn't mean it, honest! No, wait, it's not like I'm trying to say there NOT like that! No, but I'm not trying to… Just… Not trying to be rude… Ok I'll shut up now…" Before Yami could even say anything back to him he'd already started off on his own in a random direction.

"What was all that about?" Yami asked herself.

"Sorry about DC," Chrome said. "He's really bad with girls, maybe not so much around lots of people but when it's just the two of them... He might _look _like he's full of confidence with nothing in his head, but actually he can be pretty silent and thoughtful when you leave him alone long enough…" Chrome then ran off after his partner, Yami trailing on behind them. She shrugged her shoulders, giving up on trying to understand him already.

"Normally _I'm _the centre of attention… It looks like I got upstaged already! Now just to find out why we're not with the others…" The trio didn't really get very far before they spotted another dark figure coming towards them. Yami peered carefully at the figure before her eyes widened in surprise, then joy. Pushing DC and Chrome aside rather forcefully, she ran off after it. The figure kept growing larger until it materialized as what looked like a black cat walking on two legs with tiny tufts on the ends of its ears and tale and purple rings around its tail. Oddly enough, it was also wearing yellow mittens with red stripes and a paw pattern on the palm. Its claws had torn right through the fingers. Yami reached out as the cat jumped up into her embrace.

"Yami, what took you so long?" the cat said, tears brimming in her blue eyes. "I was waiting for you all alone!"

"Gatomon, I was only gone for a few weeks," Yami said, holding back tears herself. "There's no need to cry now!" DC and Chrome caught up to the pair, confused at seeing a cat talking.

"Uh… In the Digital World, is it normal for cats to talk?" DC asked.

"Hey, I'm not a cat!" the cat objected. "I'm a BlackGatomon! A Virus type cat Digimon!"

"A… a virus type?!" Chrome exclaimed in shock. "Don't tell me we'll all be deleted?!"

"No! Calm down, it just means my data's a little unstable. And I tend to destroy data types, inside and out…" Chrome backed away uneasily.

"Well… I'm Chrotojil… I'm a Medabot, not a Digimon, so I'm not sure what type I'd be…"

"Oh wait, we don't have time for that now! Yami, come this way quick! Musician village needs help!" Gatomon sprinted off in the direction she came from, followed by the others. After about five minutes they stopped at a large wooden front gate with colourful musical notes written in graffiti all over it. Gatomon stepped towards it and pushed it open effortlessly, allowing them in.

"Gatomon, why isn't this gate guarded?" Yami asked with a frown.

"They don't need to guard it anymore," she replied. "Nobody has the guts to attack nowadays, not ever since the Legend army came in. We're the only ones who are stupid enough to come!" The group cautiously walked through the dusty, silent streets, careful not to even breathe. The whistling of an eerie western wind was all that could be heard. All the houses were boarded up and nobody dared to step a foot out of them. The sound of machines whirring in the background was all they could hear. The noises echoed through the streets, getting louder and closer with each passing step. Suddenly, Gatomon put up a paw, telling them to stop. She beckoned a back alley and they all ran towards it and hid behind a group of trashcans. Large, heavy footsteps approached them along with the machine-like sounds that accompanied him. Lumbering past the hallway, a procession of what seemed like gigantic fat brown medabots passed, followed by Robo-Empresses. At the head of the procession was a tall silver cyborg, looking around in suspicion.

"Those are Guardromon and that's Andromon," Gatomon whispered.

"And the scary dragons are Robo-Empresses," DC said. "I can't forget them." The Andromon looked around before ordering his troops onwards. After about two minutes, the group left the space again.

"Gatomon… Just what is happening here?" Yami asked with concern.

"This village was once filled with songs and music from Digimon all over the world, but then the Legend army came through with their battleship and took over the whole area. Not even ShogunGeckomon could fight them off. Now the village just gives them supplies and entertainment for their leaders…"

"So what, the musicians are all slaves?" DC asked. "Don't these guys get it…?" Completely forgetting all about being stealthy, he jumped out of the open, caught up in the moment. "**The power of Rock N' Roll can never be used for evil!**"Freezing on the spot, DC turns around slowly to face the army of cyborgs and machines. Slowly, he raised a shaky nervous hand in a trembling wave. A Robo-Empress roared in rage and all of the Guardromon's put up their fists. What looked like bullets with sirens and whistles in their mouths came out of the fists. Before DC could even question why the bullets had mouths in the first place, they all flew towards him, exploding all around him. He flew backwards from the blasts, dust flying everywhere, his elbows skinned and bleeding. Chrotojil jumped out from cover and stormed them with bullets, with little effect at all. Yami and Gatomon jumped out from cover, Yami holding a black Digivice.

"Chrotojil, DC, get out of there! That attack is the guardian barrage! It'll annihilate you!" Another barrage of projectiles accompanied by Robo-Empresses bombarding missiles. Gatomon, Yami and Chrotojil all dived to the sides, narrowly escaping death. Yami picked up her digivice and brought out a card. "Gatomon?" she asked in a one word sentence. Gatomon nodded her head in affirmation. She swiped the card through the digivice. "I've just swiped in a hyperchip card. Go for it!" Gatomon sprinted towards them at ridiculously huge speeds, crushing the Guardromon's parts with each blow. Chrotojil got back up on his feet and with a roar of rage, let out a stream of missiles, destroying half of the Guardromon force in one go, leaving behind the other half and the medabots. The huge cyborg, Andromon, stepped over the deceased form of a Guardromon. Its half constructed armour glistened in the light, its flesh on its leg looked like it was drained of water. The helmet on its head covered the whole of the top half of their head except for its glistening blue eyes, eyes that should've been understanding but instead were cold and hard. It looked more like a human covered in a medabot exoskeleton.

"You dare to harm my brothers?" he said. "Nobody defies the power of the Legend Army!" Its right hand began spinning rapidly like a drill before it slashed down with it. **"Lightning Blade!" **he screamed. A blue curved blade of light sliced through the air. Gatomon jumped and punched it with a colossal punch. The impact hit with a flash of blue and black light, Gatomon flying out of it from the blast. Yami picked out another card from her pocket and looked at DC's sweating form.

"What are you doing?" she screamed. "Don't you have any strategies for your medabot?" DC let out a sad smile.

"Well, normally but… right now I can't think of anything!" Chrotojil took aim and shot with his pistol. Andromon put up an open palm, stopping the bullet against his hand. He flicked it back, the bullet embedding itself in Chrome's shoulder. Gatomon jumped back up and punched Andromon hard in the face, knocking him backwards twenty feet before he stopped. A hatch on his chest opened up and missiles streamed out of them, blasting Gatomon back over to Yami's feet, her body flickering as if her data was going to be erased. Gatomon got back up unsteadily along with Chrome. She looked up at Yami, the sting of the blow bringing tears to her eyes.

"Yami, I need more power than this!" she cried. Yami twirled the card around her fingers, staring hard at Andromon with more determination than you'd expect from her.

"You bet ya, make this one count Gatomon!" Instead of the usual green, the card had turned blue now. She swiped it through the digivice, the actual programme of the card seeming to expand out of it with power. **"Digi-Modify! Matrix Digivolution!" **Gatomon began glowing a deep purple. She became enveloped by streams of data, while the whole transformation was displayed on the Digivice.

"**Gatomon Matrix Digivolve to…"** Her whole form grew into that of a fully grown woman wearing what seemed to be a black cat suit with the left leg ripped off and stitches in places. A mask appeared covering the top half of her head. Her fur was replaced with incredibly pale vampire like skin and glowing red eyes. A chain coiled its way around her right arm like it was a serpent while her left handgrew into a large clawed hand with blood red claws. The data streams dissolved in the air, leaving the new and improved Gatomon standing there with her waist length white hair billowing in the wind as she screamed, **"LadyDevimon!"**DC's eyes widened in surprise at this new transformation.

"Whoa! I guess Gatomon takes after her tamer…" Gatomon turned her head to face DC and with a wink says in a sultry voice; "I can do other things than fight you know, if my special services are required…" Data flashed on Yami's Digivice as she explained the transformation.

"That over there is LadyDevimon," she said. "There's a very good reason she looks like Count Dracula's Highschool girlfriend! She's an Ultimate level Virus Digimon. Her special attack Nightmare wave strikes fear into the hearts of her enemies! On queue, she crossed her arms, her claws glowing with power.

"_Nightmare Wave!" _she screamed, releasing a horde of bats that attacked all of the remaining Guardromon, short circuiting them. Andromon simply ripped right through them like they weren't even there. LadyDevimon leaped into the air, releasing bats to the enemies down below. A Robo-Empress roared, shooting out a huge red energy blast. LadyDevimon exploded in a misty red explosion, only to come flying out of it, stabbing the Robo-Empress through the chest with her claws. Before she could jump out, all of the Digimon assailed her with a flood of explosives.

"Chrotojil, your bullets don't work on them," DC said, finally getting into gear now. "Switch to local combat setting and deck them!" Chrome sprinted into the fray, punching and kicking all the aggressive Digimon, batting them away as if they were flies, adding an explosion here and there for effect. Andromon approached him from behind, picking him up by his horns before spinning him around and throwing him against a wall. LadyDevimon finally jumped out of the fray, a mound of destroyed medabots and Digimon at her feet.

"There's no end to them," she yelled as she saw more Digimon coming to replace the fallen. "At this rate we'll all be overrun!" The growing numbers of Digimon seemed to be confirming LadyDevimon's fears.

"No…" DC said quietly to himself. "I just got here, this can't be happening already…"

"**Soul Crusher!" **A huge wave of fire spread across all of the enemy forces. Just the volume of the scream alone seemed to be life threatening. Yami, LadyDevimon, DC and Chrotojil all clutched their ears in pain as the heat wave passed them, coming within inches of frying them to crisps. The Digimon got up, dazed and burned, tottering around in confusion. A hatch in the wall of a house opened up to reveal a small red figure, not unlike Veemon, wearing headsets crouching in it.

"You four, this way! Hurry before they wake up! I'll deal with them!" Before they could even leave, the red Digimon had exited the vent and was now facing down the enemy. As he stepped outside, DC saw that his belly had two bolts embedded in the side and his elbows also had bolts, binding his biceps to his white forearms. His forehead seemed to actually be a large V. In his right hand he held a microphone with a large sound receiver on the end with a yellow V on it. The figure jumped into the air, wielding its microphone like a staff. _"Rowdy Rocker!" _Swinging his mic in a frenzy, he beat them all back down into a daze. He launched into the air holding two fireballs in his hands, tossing them at the people below. Andromon jumped, crashing straight through the fireballs without a care and grabbed the red Digimon by the ankles, smashing it into the ground.

"Chrotojil, it's time we show them the fighting spirit of a true medafighter and medabot combo!" DC screamed as he picked him back up. "It's time for the technique destined to defeat the medaforce! **Gunmetal Barrage! **Red Digimon, escape now!" Chrotojil aimed at Andromon and emptied a minimum of fourteen missiles all at once on him, blasting him into and through a nearby building, within moments of destroying the red Digimon as well as he rolled away.

**Medal deficiency active, cool down period. **Dozens of Guardromon started flying into the air, propelled by black and red laser beams and waves of bats as LadyDevimon tossed the last of her attackers off. Even then, more Digimon just marched in, blasting her back to the ground. The red Digimon charged up two more fire balls in his free hand and threw them like baseballs at the approaching Digimon. The battleground erupted in a cloud of smoke.

"Now's our chance!" it screamed. DC picked up Chrotojil and along with Yami and LadyDevimon, they followed the red Digimon through a back alley. By the time the dust had cleared, the group had gone, only fuelling Andromon's rage as he screamed in seething anger. As soon as they were well out of range, they stopped to catch their breath. LadyDevimon began glowing bright yellow and shrunk down to the size of a small puppy. In fact, if DC didn't know any better, he really would've thought it was a puppy, perhaps one with huge blue eyes but a puppy nonetheless. It had cream coloured fur, short legs and a glowing yellow collar around its neck.

"What happened to LadyDevimon, or Gatomon, or whoever she is now?" DC asked in confusion.

"I degenerated," she said, her voice sounding innocent and child-like. "This is my Rookieform, Salamon, while Gatomon is my Champion or adult stage, and LadyDevimon is my Ultimate level, also known as the Perfect stage. When I Matrix Digivolve, I lost so much power that I have to turn back into Salamon. Its kind of embarrassing…"

"You should be glad that you can even Digivolve in the first place!" the red Digimon said. "If I could Digivolve, maybe I'd be able to save the musicians… all my friends…" Just then they remembered that they had been saved by somebody. Chrotojil approached the Digimon, moving slowly and jerkingly.

"Thanks for saving us out there. If you hadn't interfered back then things might've gone a lot worse than that. By the way, you're not a medabot are you?"

"A medabot?" the Digimon asked confused. "I don't even know what a medabot is!"

"Just wondering since you're also made of metal all over…"

"That's because I have machine data in me! But do you want to know? I bet you want to know don't you… Who I am?"

Yami had already started scanning the Digimon with her Digivice. Shoutmon folded his arms in pride as he was scanned, Yami getting a frown on her face.

"I don't get it," Yami said with a frown.

"What is it?" DC asked in concern.

"I've got nothing on this guy. My Digivice recognizes it. A Mini-Dragon type, looks like it's in the Virus Buster's family… But there's no data on it other than that. I don't even know what generation it's in. It looks like a Rookie, could be a weak Champion, but for all we know it could really be a Mega Level! There's no data apart from its name… And a reference to the Nightmare Soldiers…"

"That's right!" the Digimon shouted, gripping his mic. "The Digimon who was once the guardian of Minstrel Village, **Shoutmon!**"


	24. Body, Mind and Soul

**Hey, I managed to post this a bit earlier! Yay! Either way, don't expect another update during November; NaNoWriMo will be taking up my time along with exams. Mainly exams in fact, but also NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is pretty much a challenge set where you have to write an entire 50,000 word story in the month of November alone... and stuff... So don't hold your breath. Oh yes, and the little song extract here is the second verse and chorus of Stars by Switchfoot, not something I made! Listen to the song, read the chapter, you'll get the idea. Anyway:**

_**THIS IS THE REAL DEAL PRESENTS:**_

_**THIS IS SPIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!**_

**Chapter 24: Body Mind and Soul**

"My name is Shoutmon!" The scream echoed through the empty alleyway. DC nodded his head in understanding.

"Hmm-hmm... I see. Well in that case, it's only fair that as a fellow warrior I should disclose my own title to you." DC extravagantly stamped his foot on an overflowing recycle bin, his eyes getting a glint in them. "Behold! I am the man who has moved entire continents through nothing but my sheer power of will, shattered mountains for fair maidens a plenty! A man with a die-hard soul as hard as my back, **I am the one and only...**"

"His name is DC," Yami said matter-of-factly. "The yellow guy over there is Chrotojil. I'm Yami, and the puppy at my feet is Salamon." DC reeled back in shock, his whole vibe stopped cold.

"N-no fair! I was getting to the best part! You can't interrupt a hero like that! Especially not one who's the main character!"

"Who says you'd be a main character anyway?" Yami asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Well come on, can't you tell?" DC jabbed a thumb at his cap. "It's all in the red cap my friend! You can't be the hero unless you've got either an awesome pair of sunglasses, or a red cap!

"Seriously? That's your criteria for judging heroes?" Yami asked, her eyebrow raised.

"But of course!" DC shouted back. Don't you know that by now? Never mind, you wouldn't understand the callings of a warrior's soul..." As they were bantering, Chrotojil walked up to Shoutmon, his digital eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"So you say you're not a medabot, so you must be a Digimon... I didn't know they were also made of metal..."

"A lot of Digimon are made of metal! Just look at me! There are loads of different types of Digimon. There're machine types, beast types, dragon types like me, and a whole bunch of others that I can't even remember!"

"Ok..." Chrotojil donned an unusually serious position, the metal above his eyes somehow furrowing with thought. "Can you elaborate on what these creatures you call _Digimon _are?" Shoutmon scratched his head in confusion, not really sure of what to say about it.

"Nobody's asked me that question before... That's like... Somebody asking a human to define themselves! Or... Define what you are?"

"Humph, well that's easy! Medabots are... like robots... but not robots... no, we're _people _but smaller, more powerful, more awesome looking and with loads of weapons ... Well... Either way I'm a Chrotojil! The perfect medabot out there!"

"News flash, you're not perfect," DC said, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"Well I'm closer to perfect than you are!" Chrome yelled back.

"Hmm... Closer to perfect than I am, sure. Cough cough, rusty joints, cough cough," he replied, literally saying 'cough cough' with his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I wouldn't be rusty if you would actually gave me a check-up instead of playing video games all day!"

"Hey hey, I'm not as young and energetic as I used to be! Sometimes I've got to relax you know? Listen to music, jam video games, _sleep_, talk to the ladies..."

"I thought you said that 'sleep was for the weak of mind'? And since when have you ever had _any _luck with girls? If you're not gonna get lucky with women then don't bother. Love seems like a pretty stupid idea in my opinion..."

"Oi! Not cool! You don't breach that area! I do not repel chicks just by my presence!"

"Well you certainly don't attract them either..." Yami took a wide step around them as the disagreement got more and more violent and went directly to Shoutmon with Salamon padding along next to her ankles.

"Ok Shoutmon, explain what happened here from the very beginning. We've just arrived from the human world so we really have no idea what's happening."

"Alright, I'll fill you in on everything up till now. Let's walk and talk. In the beginning, there was nothing..."

"Not that far back! Just about what happened to this village!"

"Oh right, sorry... Okay! It started during this huge concert when they all invaded..." DC and Chrotojil abruptly stopped arguing and sat down around him with cross legs, looking just like children around a fireplace during story time. "W-what're you doing?" Shoutmon asked.

"Oh don't mind us, just carry on with the story," Chrotojil said.

"Well mind me!" DC interjected. "I noticed that a lot more than you're letting us in on is at the top of your mind... Go back, go waaaaayyyy back to the beginning. What's your village like and what it this concert? Put passion into it!"

"Okay! I'll tell a story of passion that will light up your very souls!" Shoutmon screamed. "First, this place is Minstrel village, land of musicians all over! I've lived here all my life in the hopes of becoming a rock star..."

_**Just a few weeks prior...**_

_The village, back when it still had all its buildings standing, wasn't always a barren desert you know. It wasn't a lush paradise either but you couldn't notice. With the sound of music all around you, what could you help but see nothing but gold around you? In the very centre of the village was the only building that looked like it was worth anything; ShogunGeckomon's castle. It was a huge samurai styled palace that rose high above all the other nearby buildings, scraping the sky itself with its peak. All around it in the space there were huge crowds of Digimon, all of them begging for a chance to show their talents to the Shogun. The best musicians get a chance to play for the shogun himself and have the chance to earn fame and glory! First you would have to become well known as an expert musician, whatever it was that you were playing. If you'd played at a minimum of thirteen concerts, and got four star ratings or more at nine twelve of those, then you were allowed to participate in the annual "Bard Shogun" competition. I didn't think there was anyone in the whole village who didn't want to win that at least once in their lives! Winning could affect your whole life! I was no exception either. My only dream was, and still is to be able to let everyone in the Digital World hear the scream of my soul on stage! I wanna be a rock star!_

_So it started last week. The stage was set in the town square, just outside the castle. The stage was a huge wooden platform with enormous speakers built into the sides. There was a huge kinda cut-away dome covering the stage, bouncing all the sound out to the people in the audience. It looked a bit like a stage for an orchestra. The audience seats were all as you'd expect: Front row being the most expensive and having the best seats, the back row being... The back row. I took the first step through the front gates of the stadium and the butterflies started flapping in my stomach alright: I felt like I was gonna throw up on the spot. My feet were rooted to the spot, I could barely breathe, let alone move my feet. But at the same time I felt exhilarated! The nervousness that I was feeling just a second ago suddenly turned to passion. I was scared, not of looking stupid on stage, but of not looking cool enough! I was finally ready to go. Just then I heard someone yell my name out from my left. I looked and saw this green looking guy who looked like some kind of newt. A large yellow tuba was growing out of its back._

"_Geckomon..." I hissed under my breath. Me and Geckomon have had a rivalry ever since we were kids._

"_I've never heard of such a misunderstanding!" he said sneeringly. "How could you of all people be in the Shogun Bard concert? You and your sorry disgrace for music?"_

"_I deserve to be here just as much as you!" I retorted. Honestly though, not many people in Minstrel Village actually liked my music. All the concerts my band played in were outside the village where people liked the sounds we made. But even then we weren't _actually _qualified to enter. We pretty much crashed the place._

"_Ignore them kido, we're the ones who are gonna go big time!" a deep voice that sounded like the king of rock himself said behind me. I turned around to see none other than our bass guitarist. I covered my eyes as a glint from his sunglasses glared in my eyes. He never went anywhere without his stunners. Etemon, was pretty much a monkey that's been working out, but he's a bit weird. For one thing he's got stitches along his bicep so he seems more like a walking stuffed toy. For another thing there's always a small yellow teddy strapped to his waist. "Just stick with me and we can hit it big time baby!"_

"_Oh yes, I forgot you were accompanied by this brute..." Geckomon whispered to him, purposefully letting the comment get heard by Etemon._

"_You can say all the words in the world little boy, but nothings gonna stop us from outshining you at the Bard shogun! Shoutmon, don't let em bring you down ya dig? We gotta discuss things with Leomon." I turned around and stuck my tongue out at Geckomon who stuck his nose in the air like the snob he is. I followed Etemon backstage where all the other bands were getting prepared. Our drummer was seated by our equipment. He took in a deep breath, and then exhaled._

"_Guys, we have a problem," he said sadly. "Lilymon left the band..."_

"_What?!" I screamed._

"_He speaks the truth little dude," Etemon said. "We all got here and found this note." Etemon took a crumpled not out from the inside of his teddy and handed it to me. It read;_

'_Hey guys! I got a contract offer from these important guys calling themselves the Legend company! Isn't this so amazing? I was going to ask them to bring you guys along but they insisted that my talents were that much better than you guys. I always thought that I was better, but now I know that my fans think so to, HAHAHAHAHA!_

_P.S: I always did find you a bit annoying, Shoutmon! XD_

_P.P.S: I'll miss you Leomon! 3'_

_I crumpled up the piece of paper and shoved it back to Etemon._

"_Heh! We don't need her anyway! We're the Dark Network! We can do anything!"_

"_It's not that simple Shoutmon," Leomon said. "She was our lead singer, _and _lead guitarist. What are we meant to do now that she's gone? None of us can sing, and don't say you can either! You know what happened last time..."_

"_I get it, I get it!" I said. It was not something I needed to be reminded of. "We'll just play like normal and fill in the her solo performance with a bass solo. Nobody will know that we were meant to have lyrics in the song! So let's do this!" I put my fist up. Everybody fist bumped to the cry, 'Dark Network!'_

_The performances all flew by without anything really standing out. The first performance was a HUGE orchestra conducted by a Digimon that looked like a gigantic version of Etemon's teddy and performed by an ensemble of Geckomons. I didn't watch the next two performances but they were keyboard pieces. The Geckomon that I hated went up with a violin, while blowing on his tuba. It sounded like an army of Gatomon all commiting suicide. One. By. One. But the crowd ate it up. Finally it was our turn. Etemon looked at me, I looked at Leomon, and Leomon looked at Etemon._

"_Let's do this," Leomon said. A three way fist bump followed, and then we set up on stage. Leomon set the drums up and I carried my black electric guitar with the red V design. I extended my right hand to the side and my trusted microphone shot out of my palm. I grabbed it and stuck it on the ground and began connecting it to my guitar. Etemon walked up on stage with no instruments._

"_**We're the Dark Network: Concert Crash!" **__he screamed, a blinding flash of light appearing in his hands before fading away, leaving behind a red bass guitar in its place. It didn't need to be connected to a power supply as long as long as it was in his hands. Leomon counted us in. I opened with my electric guitar, the drum playing the hi-hats playing repeatedly . The bass joined in. My heart rate spiked as a wave of sound was sent through the speakers and my mic to the crowd below. The lead was missing but I could easily make up for it. My very soul was leaving through my guitar, my pic feeling like lightning in my hands. My heart was beating perfectly in time with the drums now, my soul pulsing with the bass, and my body raging with the guitar. My eyes shut as the sheer thrill of the moment carried me on. I opened them just for a second and all in one go reality caught up with me._

_The crowd wasn't cheering like at our other concerts. In fact, they were booing and jeering, the loudest of them all being Geckomon. If things carried on the way they were then somebody was gonna start chucking stuff at us. I knew the village wasn't really fond of rock music, but I hadn't expected that kind of reaction! I looked back over my shoulder at the other two. Etemon shrugged his shoulders, a bead of sweat dropping off of his forehead. Leomon was too deep in concentration to notice anything but the music. Things were getting desperate. I got closer to the mic. It was time... For me to return to my best instrument, my voice!_

"_**Stars looking at a planet, watching entropy and pain,**_

_**And maybe start to wonder how the chaos in our lives could pass as sane**_

_**I've been thinking 'bout the meaning of resistance, of a hope beyond my own**_

_**And suddenly the infinite and penitent begin to look like home**_

_**I've been thinking 'bout everyone, everyone you look so empty**_

_**{Chorus}**_

_**But when I look at the Stars, when I look at the Stars**_

_**When I look at the Stars, I see someone else!**_

_**When I look at the Stars, the Stars**_

_**I feel like myself!**_

_**{Chorus over}**_

_**Back in Real Time**_

"Shoutmon! Shoutmon!"

"Huh? What?" Shoutmon opened his eyes, startled out of his reverie. The building they had taken shelter in without Shoutmon even noticing had cracked windows and shattered glasses lining all the cupboards. There were burn marks on the floor around Shoutmon and DC was busy rolling on the floor, his jacket on fire with Chrome trying to put it out with a bucket of water. Yami grabbed a second bucket and helped while Shoutmon hopped about, not knowing what to do. As soon as DC was doused, his green and black Fubu jacket ruined, they all confronted Shoutmon, tapping their feet in annoyance. "Huh? Guys, what did I do?" he asked confused.

"You started singing!" DC yelled back. "I know I said you should put passion into it, but you used that Soul Crusher attack of yours! Apart from nearly blowing up our eardrums, you also wrecked the whole house!"

"Oh yeah... Sorry guys!" he said apologetically. "Sometimes when I get too worked up, I... well... do that... That's why I don't sing in my band as well, I burn things and smash things and get really violent when I do."

"So that was the incident your band was talking about..." Yami said. "Don't worry too much about it. It was actually kind of funny seeing DC running around with his butt on fire!"

"No it was not!" DC retorted, still pouting about his ruined jacket, clutching his red cap tightly to prevent the same fate from happening to it. "And your Soul Smasher or whatever isn't all thats wrong though. That song is... too gentle for your harsh sounding voice."

"I know, I'm not good at songs like that. That's why we had Lilymon as our singer."

"Well... continue I guess... But if you burn my hat I will not hesitate to... sick Chrome on you!"

"Hey! I'm not your dog!"

"Well I'm not fighting someone that can practically breathe fire!"

"So? That still doesn't mean that you can just point in a direction and I'll go!"

"It certainly does mean that I can just point you in a direction and you'll go!" Yami cleared her throat loudly before they could start arguing again. They both stayed silent for a while.

"Now, you can continue Shoutmon," she said.

"Thanks. I was talking about failing without our singer and lead right?..."

_**A few weeks prior...**_

_I was dying out there, and the huge sound wave of death I was sending out wasn't helping at all. As if on cue, a huge explosion sounded behind me, blasting me and Etemon offstage._

"_What the..." I turned around and froze in shock. The whole stage had been blown to bits, the drums crushed under a pile of debris. Underneath a massive stage light and what must have been a ton of wood was Leomon, his eyes half closed and the look of a dead man on his face. "Leomon!" We rushed towards him immediately, even as everybody else ran away in fear. As soon as I reached him I gripped the metal bar with Etemon and pulled with all my might. My arms felt like they were tearing themselves to pieces and the bolts shook with the strain, but I kept pulling anyway. Leomon coughed weakly._

"_You know, isn't it funny how in all the stories of old, it's always a Leomon that falls first..."_

"_Not another word buddy," Etemon said, the usual cool in his voice now edged with panic. "We're not gonna let that happen to you."_

"_But it's already happening; you just can't see it yet..." His data flickered with the sure signs of death._

"_Just hold on! We'll move this thing! The show must go on!" Leomon didn't look like he'd heard us._

"_If I regret one thing, it's that I couldn't die nobly in battle like my ancestors..." Another explosion sounded off to my right, sending pieces of somebody's house flying. I looked around me, looking for the source of the explosions. I looked up at the sky. Etemon followed my gaze up to the sky._

"_Oh mama... This is one crazy day..." Hovering in the sky was, believe me or not, a gigantic purple and silver flying saucer. Just something about it leaked trouble. Missiles were flying out of every opening that thing had, blowing up the streets, sending debris flying everywhere. Huge skulls were floating around the streets, eating all the Digimon they could find and taking them back up to the saucer. Machine Digimon were flying out of the saucer, dropping bombs on all the villagers. A massive skull spotted me from the sky and floated down to me, screaming in rage._

"_I'll get you back for what you did to Leomon!" I screamed, jumping into the air. I punched it hard, my fist glowing red with rage. The whole skull blew up in my face, sending me shooting back down to the ground in a cloud of dust. I could barely feel the impact with the rage that was filling me now. Next to me on the ground, as if waiting for me, was my mic. I yanked it off the ground in rage, my vision going red with bloodlust. Etemon seemingly teleported next to me, his bass guitar mysteriously appearing in his hands as usual._

"_Well then Shoutmon, it's time to rip it up. You know what to do!" Skulls and machine Digimon surrounded us, making the whole situation look hopeless._

"_Yeah, Lets go Etemon! We'll show these guys the power of Dark Network!" We both jumped in the air, smashing back two skulls with swings of our instruments. We landed on the ground again, steady on our feat, back to back. An eagle looking Digimon charged at us. I hopped to the side, Etemon getting in its way._

"_**Dark Network: Concert Crash!" **__he screamed as he strummed his guitar with all his force. Black and purple cables rose from the floor, zapping back the eagle Digimon and grabbing several others. In front of me was a vicious looking dragon Digimon that had torn wings. It roared in anger and shot a massive red laser at us. I jumped over it, just in time, while Etemon ducked underneath. I raised my free hand in the air, charging up a burning fireball shaped like a musical note._

"_Feel the very quavers of my soul! __**Rock Damashii!**__" I chucked it at the Digimon with all of my might, the blast hitting it head on. It exploded in a puff of smoke, nearly knocking it over. It stopped itself from falling at the last minute and roared in rage, firing a stream of missiles at me. I swung my mic wildly at them, smashing each one back, an explosion accompanying each strike. I smashed the last one back. "Heh, is that all you can do-" I was interrupted as the red laser returned, slamming straight into my chest. I felt all the air exit my lungs as I flew up higher into the air from the impact. I landed flat on my back in the ground again. I looked up and saw Etemon fighting off an army of Digimon, his guitar now strapped to his back while he was fist fighting them all. Haltingly, I picked myself up off of the floor._

"_Not yet... I can still fight..." Etemon cleared the whole lot of them in one kick and turned back to face me._

"_Kid, I'm gonna have to ask you to stop right there," he said._

"_What? Why?"_

"_Look at you, after only one hit you can barely move. You're only a rookie level, I'm an Ultimate level. It's my job not just as the king of rock, but as the king of all fighting Digimon to protect those who can't protect themselves. You've gotta get out of here while you still can."_

"_There's no way I'm abandoning you Etemon!" I gripped my mic even tighter, the handle glowing bright red as my rage turned into pure passion, my strongest weapon. I turned around to see five more of those dragons. With a roar, I leaped into them, wielding my mic with devastating force._

"_**Rowdy, Rocker!"**__ I smashed the first dragon in the face, using the force of the impact to launch myself into the air, flipping over the incoming missiles. I smashed the next one's shoulder, then quickly kicked off of its face, ramming into the next one's stomach with my shoulder, then upper cutting it with my mic. I spun around on the balls of my feat, whacking a missile back into a dragon's chest. I leaped into the air again and landed on the ground, smashing the ground hard with the mic, sending earth chunks flying everywhere. The few remaining villagers watched on from the shadows with awe as we destroyed the machine Digimon._

"_You can do it guys!" somebody shouted. "Show them you're heroes, not zeroes!"_

"_Let it rip with all you've got!" Somebody else shouted._

"_Do it for the whole village!" A third voice said as now more voices accompanied them with more confidence. Again, I met up with Etemon in the centre, bruises all over the two of us._

"_Things are looking bad for us aren't they?" Etemon said, wiping some dirt off of his nose._

"_What're you talking about? I'm perfectly... Fine..."_

"_I've heard enough little man, you've gotta get out of here if you wanna keep your life."_

"_But Leomon's still..." Etemon cut me off._

"_I've got Leomon so you worry about your own skin, ya dig? Go!" I hesitated, and then gripped my mic even tighter, letting my feelings get amplified by its power. A wave of flying Digimon and skulls appeared in the sky just as I was ready to burst. I raised my mic to my mouth._

"_**Soul Crusher!" **__I screamed into the mic, a wave of fire erupting from it along with the extreme sound. The blaze slammed straight into them, knocking over half of them clean out of the sky, wings shattered, eye sockets smashed. I collapsed to my knees, my chest heaving from exhaustion. Etemon looked at me, his expression hidden behind his sunglasses. He opened his mouth to say something. Before another sound could come out a massive roar sounded from the saucer. We both looked up to see a gigantic laser being fired from it. Without another word, Etemon leaped at me, knocking us to the side. The laser zapped past us, the heat from the laser radiating off of it, just inches away from us. The laser passed us, destroying everything in its path. I raised my head slightly. Etemon wasn't moving. "Etemon? Come on, stop messing around! I know that's not enough to get you!" There was no response. "Oi Etemon, enough already. You can get up now." Still no answer. I slid from underneath him and looked at his back to see a massive burn mark all along it. I stepped back in horror, falling down onto my rear. He slowly raised his head._

"_Oh man oh man... It looks like this time I'm down for the count..."_

"_Etemon! Don't move, I'll get help for you and Leomon!"_

"_Don't bother kid, this isn't enough to take me down... I'm an Ultimate fighting machine. I'll live through this, but you won't if that thing even tickles you. You've gotta get outta here while you still can."_

"_No way! You might be out, but I can still fight!"_

"_I don't think you get it kid. If it was just those third-rate Digimon or whatever they are then we could take them no problem. But even together we haven't so much as laid a dent in that flying disco ball. If you can at least escape, then I won't have to feel so bad for losing. You'll at least have survived."_

"_I'm not going anywhere! If they shoot us again, I'll..." I was cut short when three figures were lowered down from the saucer. One of them was a human kid with dark green hair and a blue shirt. The other was a shorter robot looking guy with blue horns, golden claws and a black visor covering his eyes. On the kids other side was another robot Digimon, this one dark blue and with huge beetle horns coming out of its back and shoulders. The kid looked around him at the destruction down below, then spotted me, my eyes burning into his with hatred._

"_You there, where where can I find the Twilight sparkle?"_

"_The what?" I asked._

"_You heard me, where can I find the Twilight Sparkle? Our scanners say its nearby. If you don't have that, then maybe you have Dawn's Rainbow?" I looked at him, not sure what he was talking about. "Seriously? What about the Helix medal? The Spiral Medal? Perhaps the End's true body?"_

"_You're not making any sense at all! But I don't care, I won't forgive you for what you did to my friends!" I leaped at him, wielding my mic with all the force of a hurricane behind it._

"_I should have known you wouldn't know anything... Tyrellbeetle, intercept him." The big guy stepped in front of me, his arms covering his face in a cross. I struck with all my might, the ground beneath the guy splitting from the force of the impact. He didn't seem to notice at all, pushing me off with a burst of power. I landed on the ground, skidding to a halt. "Zorin, Monkey to Ox." The smaller guy sprinted around me, kicking up dust as he did so, flipping and cart wheeling as he did so. I was struggling just to keep up with him using my eyes. I shut them, knowing they wouldn't work. If I could just pick up the sound vibrations..._

_I spun around, smashing him in the face with my mic. A dark blue force field appeared just before the impact, the guy skidding back without a bruise on him. "He's stronger than he looks. Zorin, Activate reverse power leach. Tyrellbeetle, beat him to the ground." The small guy, Zorin's horns started rapidly changing colour until it stopped at pink. Before I could even charge at him again my whole body suddenly froze on the spot._

"_What-what is this?" I said, my legs barely even moving. Zorin charged at me, his horns glowing and his feet now moving at double-time. The bigger guy who was probably Tyrellbeetle was now also moving at what looked like my speed. The two came together in the middle, Zorin slashing me across my back while Tyrellbeetle punched me in the gut with force. Before I could even recover they came back again, smashing and tearing at me mercilessly. The red haze covered my vision again._

"_**Who do you think you are?!" **__I screamed, swinging my mic three-sixty around me, beating them all away. I screamed into my mic again, the heatwaves beating them back, forcing them to jump back. I could hear the music of my soul playing over and over again in my head, Etemon's bass guitar standing out in my head. "Here's one for all the dreamers out there! __**Dark Network: Soul Crusher!" **__My usual red heat wave had now turned black and scarlet with a raging passion as I screamed out the name of my attack into the mic. The human covered his ears in pain, his clothes flapping in the wind. I stopped screaming, my chest heaving with the exertion. "Take... that... Nobody can defeat... Dark... Network?" The pair of Digimon were still standing, damaged but not defeated. "No way... that was my strongest attack! I'm the only Shoutmon in the world that can do that! Nobody should still be standing after that!"_

"_That's your finisher?" the boy asked surprised. "It seems I overestimated the creatures of this world. Even if you are only a Rookie or Champion level, I still expected more. Zorin,type two medaforce." Zorin began glowing dark purple, the sky above our heads turning dark as if daytime itself suddenly passed out. I couldn't even move at this point even if my legs were still working. It's shameful to admit it even now but, I was scared. I was terrified. I'd never seen such power coming from anything before, not even Etemon. I actually thought that I was going to die. Waves of despair were radiating off of him. He brought his claws to his side._

"_**Medaforce!" **__he screamed as he sliced through the air, a gigantic blue energy wave coming off of his claws. Weakly, I put up my microphone to defend from the attack._

_I can't remember very clearly after that. I just know that I was on the ground and I couldn't move. The human probably thought I was dead. I guess he doesn't know that Digimon disintegrate when they die. I saw his feet as he walked away with his Digimon. I saw containers full of the villagers being carried by Mammothmons. Inside one of them was Etemon, Leomon was nowhere to be seen. By the side, next to that kid was, believe it or not, Lilymon. I didn't really understand it at first, and I wasn't going to believe that she sold out the village. And then I saw the hand cuffs around her wrists and knew she was also a prisoner. And then I blacked out..._

_I came to hours later, Etemon's words circling around and around in my head with guilt. He was protecting me because he was an Ultimate level. He was strong enough to protect us all and save the village. I was a rookie level, and too weak to save anybody. If Etemon hadn't tried to save me from that laser, he would have still been ok. He could have defeated that guy and saved Lilymon. But I got in the way and let him down. Even my most powerful attack didn't do anything to those two... If I could just digivolve into something stronger like Etemon did from Ogremon, then maybe I'd be able to protect everyone... Maybe I'd even be able to be a better musician! I've been trying to form a resistance against them after they took over the village as 'The Legend Army' but nobody wants to get hurt fighting them. So I've been doing it myself. Everyday I've been attacking them, everytime I've been losing, running away. My body hurts all over and I'm no closer than when I started, but I have to keep trying. I can no longer use the Dark Network, but I still have to keep going! But all that I've learnt is that my power isn't enough..._

_**Back in Real Time**_

Shoutmon finished his story. By now it was nightfall and according to Shoutmon the guards wouldn't patrol that area for a while. If they were going to leave, that was the best time to do it. Chrotojil was practically crying in the corner of the room, comedic tears streaming down his face. Salamon's ears were drooping in sadness and Yami was completely silent. DC sat stock still, his eyes shut, his arms folded and his legs crossed on the floor. His face showed a dark anger filled expression on it, completely at odds with his personality.

"So your whole village got captured?" Yami finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Most of them, and anybody who resisted," he replied. "I only escaped because they thought I was dead. Everyone who still lives here are bordered up inside, only coming out when they have to.

"Those Digimon that attacked you must be medabot," Yami said. "Although I've never heard of a Zorin with that kind of ability. Well, we can't try to fight them yet. I'll try and call Ryuga and we can go together to-"

"That story sucked!" DC yelled, his voice filled with rage.

"What?! Who do you think you are? Do you even know what I went through?" Shoutmon screamed back at him, clutching his mic harder.

"Yeah, and I know that you're being stupid, _and _you're too weak! Not only did you _fail _to protect your village, but you're also going about things completely the wrong way!"

"Take that back!" Shoutmon screamed.

"No! You need a wakeup call! Saying 'if only I was stronger' and 'if only I could fly' or whatever isn't going to make you able to do any of that! Senselessly bashing yourself against those guys as some kind of self punishment isn't going to help you either! You need to-" Whatever DC was going to say was blocked out as Shoutmon dived at him, sending him to the ground. DC kicked him off of him and rolled back up onto his feet, forcing Shoutmon to drop his mic. Shoutmon balanced himself and charged at him again, only to receive a fast jab to the face. Before he could do anything he received a series of fast jabs, dazzling Shoutmon before he got a sweeping kick, sending him to the floor. "I'm a street fighter extraordinaire, but you should still be ashamed about losing to a human!"

"DC stop!" Yami screamed, pulling him away from Shoutmon along with Chrotojil. DC pushed Chrotojil out of the way with ease, but he hesitated trying to do anything to Yami, getting flustered.

"Take it easy, I know what I'm doing," he whispered to her. "Just trust me on this one." Yami paused for a second, then let go of his arm and stepped away, and not a moment too soon. I fireball flew towards DC, exploding right in his face. Salamon who had stayed back during the whole fight gasped, expecting his face to be horrendously fried. The smoke cleared and showed his eyebrows were slightly burnt but that was it.

"Hah! An attack like that filled with no passion won't do anything to me! Come on, is that the best you've got?"

"Shut up!" Shoutmon screamed back at him. "You don't know what it's like to lose people who are important to you and know that it's all your fault! You can't understand that feeling of hopelessness as they disappear before your eyes all because you were _too weak!_"

"But I _can _understand it! All too well for that matter, first-hand experience! And even if I didn't, I still understand that your despair is making you so much weaker than you could be! You'll never be able to save anybody like that!"

"Shut up!" he shrieked, his fist glowing red with anger. Yami's Digivice glowed with new readings. She glanced at it and her pupils dilated.

"DC, stop provoking him! My Digivice reads that he has the power of a Champion level! He can kill you!"

"Please, he can't kill me if he can't even-" A powerful punch to the chest silenced him as he crashed into the wall. He crumpled to the floor in a daze, Shoutmon holding his smoking fist with satisfaction.

"DC!" Yami rushed over to him but Chrotojil barred the way.

"Wait... He's ok."

"What do you mean he's ok?" Yami screamed. "He got punched by a Digimon!"

"He knew what to expect. That punch isn't going to stop him." True enough, DC got up, coughing heavily as he did so and clutching his chest in pain. He smiled, his eyes filled with a hard and distant look.

"That punch reminded me of somebody a long time ago, with passion to rival the sun itself... But that's still only a fraction of what you used to be able to do isn't it?"

"What?!" Shoutmon took a step back. "You're just a human aren't you?"

"Don't falter or else your enemy will show you what real passion is! **Like this!**" DC brought his left fist back and with a ridiculous amount of force, the punching coming like lightning, he punched Shoutmon in the forehead, sending him to the floor, flipping over until he crashed into the wall himself. DC clutched his fist which was now shaking from the shock of having punched metal multiple times. "Your punch wouldn't have laid a dent in Chrome's armour. What makes you think it will damage the enemy? In those few weeks you had after getting beaten, what were you doing? Why weren't you honing your skills? Why were you just wishing for something that would never happen? Why were you attacking in a way that you even knew would fail? What would Leomon say, knowing that you had the chance to redeem yourself, and you just threw it away? He would probably give up both his arms for the chance he didn't have, but you're wasting it!"

"But I'm trying! I'm really trying to save them!"

"What you're doing is _failing! _Weren't you paying any attention? Your pathetic excuses for fists can't hurt them! Apart from the difference in our fighting spirit, why did my frail, weak and probably sprained human hand do more damage to you than your fully metallic dragon hand did to me?"

"How should I know?"

"That's exactly the problem! My home town can be a dangerous place if you're not careful so when I get into fights it's with all kinds of people. Boxers, martial artists, wrestlers, street fighters, so you can imagine I know exactly what to do to make the perfect punch. You know nothing of me or my abilities so you lost against them! You know nothing of the enemy either so you can't possibly beat them! You're charging in like a blind bull with no horns who just caught a common cold! Two things for you; stop using your stupid mouth so much and use your heart! And stop just using your heart and use your head! Your spirit might burn with passion, but it's only with body, mind and soul together, coupled with the power that you gain when combined with your nakama that you can achieve true strength!" Shoutmon stayed silent, his fists still clenched in rage. Finally, he relaxed them. Yami visibly exhaled, the tension in the air finally evaporating. Shoutmon sighed heavily.

"Alright, alright, you win. As much as I hate to admit it... you're right. Then what are you saying we should do?" DC smiled, his playful look and the glint in his eyes returning along with it as he grabbed the peak of his cap and turned it backwards on his head.

"Isn't it obvious? I can't believe you haven't figured out the answer yet... We're going to rescue your friends, and save the whole village!"


	25. Primary Tactics

**I couldn't wait so freakishly long to start writing This is Spirit again with all the ideas churning around in my head... I've gotta type this or else I won't be able to focus on my NaNoWriMo story! So, here goes nothing! Oh yeah, and just as a reference for later, DigiXross is pronounced Digi Cross, not Digicksross or something weird like that... Either way;**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This is, and forever will be, SPIRIT!**

**Chapter 25 (I think...): Primary Tactics  
><strong>

While DC and Yami were busy making plans on how to retake the castle, Ikki's group wasn't too far behind them now. For the past twenty minutes, Metabee had been screaming nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, everybody in the group blocking their ears and groaning for him to shut up. By the time he was at six thousand bottles, everybody had either stepped far away from him or were wearing headphones at maximum volume to drown out the sound. The only people near him were Ikki and Windstorm, Windstorm floating on what looked like a cloud sleeping so she was fine, while Ikki tried desperately to convince him to stop.

"Metabee, will you _pleeeaase _stop singing?! Its driving us crazy!" Metabee acted like he didn't hear him."

"Five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, Five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine bottles of beer, you take one down, pass it around, Five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall, Five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-eight..."

"Arrghh! Metabee! I wish that I could just eject your medal like a normal medabot!" He'd already tried that fifty times at least. "That's it, transport Queen Bee!" A flash of blue, then pink, then black light materialised in front of Ikki.

"You rang?" she said sweetly.

"Neutralize Metabee!" Ikki yelled. Queen Bee spotted Metabee singing horribly off tune then narrowed her eyes. She shook her head sadly, then tapped Metabee's shoulder. Metabee turned around confused. His eyes widened in surprise as a needle stabbed through a joint on his arm, then his eyes narrowed sleepily.

"No... I lost... count... have to... start... a... gain... ..." Metabee collapsed on the floor, sleeping like a baby. Queen Bee grabbed Metabee's arm and with no effort at all, hauled him over her shoulder and carried on walking. Everybody let out a sigh of relief as soon as they saw Metabee had stopped singing.

"Well then, I think we've travelled a fair enough distance," Ryuga said, looking at his digivice. A red needle shook on the digivice like a compass needle before steadying itself again in the direction they were walking, set towards Yami's own digivice. "We should be able to rest for a while and still make it there in the next two hours. Right now its time for lunch!"

"I second that motion with enthusiasm!" Leo said, already taking out a packed sandwich from his bag. Ikki collapsed on the floor in contentment, staring up at the drifting clouds. Ikki had never seen green clouds before. Or yellow ones either. He'd never seen purple ones before, and red clouds seemed a bit rare at this time of day to..."

"Hey Hiro," Ikki said. "I know that I should be saying the fresh air is a great change of pace to the constant smell of oil and medaparts..."

"Hey!" Queen Bee, Windstorm, Saikachis and Blackbeetle all said at once.

"Sorry but its true!" Ikki countered back defensively. "But why are the clouds different colours here?"

"To be honest... I don't know," Hiro replied between bites of his own chicken mayonnaise sandwich. He'd just been sitting on a tree stump, using another tree stump as a desk for his laptop. "I've never been to this part of the Digital World before, and even if I had, there are still things about the Digital World that only the Digimon would be able to explain, and sometimes not even then!"

"Exactly!" Veemon cut in. "I bet you'd be confused as to why meat grows on trees, but I'm still wondering why it doesn't in your world!"

"Wait... Meat? On trees?" Ikki asked in shock. "There's no way I can believe that!"

"I'm telling you! There's meat trees! It all made perfect sense when they explained it at the daycare centre, back when I was just a Demi-Veemon, maybe you need to go back to school?" Ikki looked at him with a raised eyebrow, then went back to talking to Hiro.

"So, what's with this place anyway? How can this all be 'digital'? I can touch and feel everything, sometimes even more than I would in the real world! This isn't some kind of giant VR game is it?"

"Of course it's not a VR simulation!" Hiro yelled, slightly offended. "Do you know what kind of massive super computer it would take to run and maintain the whole digital world if it was? There are a lot of VR games that _link _to the Digital World like Digimon Masters 3D and Digimon World by the Megumi company, but they don't even contain a _fraction _of the full digital world!"

"So how can I... touch everything if it's just data?"

"Okay, instead of trying to explain it to you, why don't I just show you? Can I borrow Metabee's medal for a second?" Ikki looked at Metabee who looked like he was having a dream about eating cake... He shrugged and ejected the medal which was now loose from being knocked out. The medal popped out of his back and spun through the air before Ikki clumsily caught it. He handed it to Hiro who frowned at it with worry when he saw the silvery green line going through it. Hiro opened up a disk tray on the side of the laptop to reveal it wasn't a disk tray at all, but actually a medal tray. He placed it inside, the blue medalias facing down. He closed it and a window popped up on screen showing Metabee's medal. A series of 0's and 1's appeared on screen in binary code. "Now you see all of this right? This is the data for Metabee in binary code form. This blank section here is some kind of blocked off memory cortex, probably from the original Metabee of the Medarolli people. This smaller blank spot is some of his normal memories. It's not much really, it's more like peoples birthdays and important dates from the look of it so nothing to worry about. What's that about anyway?"

"Yeah, long story short, he got amnesia and forgot a lot of stuff, including how to use the medaforce. He's remembered most of the stuff by now though and he's got the medaforce again so I'm just glad he's okay." Hiro's eyes widened in surprise when Ikki mentioned the medaforce.

"Metabee can use that?" Ikki nodded. "Well, at least that means you have an advantage that no other Digimon has here so that's good!" He scrolled down the screen and there were even more numbers. "This is his battle data. If you convert it a bit, it looks something like this...

**Kabuto medal: level 45**

**Skills:**

**Strike: 15**

**Berserk: 17**

**Defend: 5**

**Heal: 0**

**Shoot: 65**

**Aim Shot: 55**

**Support: 20**

**Interrupt: 0**

The stats looked a bit low to Ikki, but that was probably since Metabee's medal reset. He was amazed it was still in its pupae stage and not a larvae yet. Ikki's medawatch flashed as it scanned the medal along with Hiro's laptop.

**Scan complete: New medaforce ability active. Damage Ball ready for use.**

"Whoa! My scan unlocked something! Awesome! Well either way, compare the data on Metabee to the data on Veemon." Hiro made his laptop face Veemon. "Now look at this, and compare it to Metabee." A green line ran through the picture of Veemon and suddenly numbers began to flow through him. All that was left of the picture was his outline, the rest was binary code. He dragged this window to the left and kept Metabee's medal on the right. He scrolled down both of them. "This down here is their genetic coding that decides their habits, strengths, weaknesses, base stats, digivolution routes and medal evolution routes. He clicked and dragged Veemon's binary code on top of Metabee's. To Ikki's surprise, a lot of the numbers matched each other perfectly. "They're not that different from each other. It looks like Medabots have a more violent code than Veemon at least, but Veemon has more freedom to choose his digivolutions. If I went through the trouble of explaining all the similarities and differences then this would take forever. The point is; Medals can exist in a physical form because they have the memories of their past ancestors encoded as data inside a physical object, almost like a soul in a jar. In a sense, they're something digital, or maybe even spiritual stored inside something physical and known elements and particles, metaphysical stuff in physical stuff. In the Digital World, this isn't necessary as a physical case isn't really needed as metaphysical objects, certain electromagnetic waves, and 'spirits' if you'll call it can take on a physical form, probably from reacting with elements that aren't recorded in the periodic table since we haven't discovered them yet. Like what elements fuse together to form Chrome Digizoid, one of the most powerful compounds in existence? That could explain some of the more controversial myths of heroes with swords falling from stars, some of them really are comets with iron and steel but... Anyway, it's like old myths of a spirit realm alongside ours, only that in this day and age we know it's all digital. You could make a whole university thesis on it if you wanted to!"

Ikki who had been following along as best as he could was now completely lost in the sea of words and numbers.

"So... Medabots and Digimon are cousins?"

"Yes, you could say that. And why can we touch data? Well I've just given you a lecture as to how it works, but that is only my theory. I could be wrong."

"My head... it hurts from too much information..." Hiro laughed and ejected Metabee's medal.

"Don't worry too much about it. Just focus on trying to defeat the bad guys!" Akkia got up from her own seat and walked over to the pair.

"I couldn't help overhear that and it worries me. Ikki, back in medaropolis, that kid with the Zorin said that they were looking for a new type of medal right? They also mentioned something about trying to revive the Tochikans and how some medals contain traces of the original monsters the Tochikans were partnered with, right? So what if these super-rare medals were related to Digimon here? Think about it, the only advantage we have is the medaforce, so what happens when we meet a Digimon with medaforce? What're we gonna do then?"

"We'll have to figure it out as we go then," Hiro said. "But right now we still have to find Yami, DC and Chrome right? As soon as everybody's finished with lunch, we'll set off." Just then, Windstorm woke up, the cloud she was hovering on transforming back into her leg and torso medaparts. She stretched out her limbs before looking at Ikki with sleep filled eyes.

"So, are we ready to go or what? Knowing DC he's probably got a whole army on his case..."

* * *

><p>"<em>Hey Shoutmon, can you hear me over there?" <em>DC asked. Shoutmon tapped his headphones lightly.

"Yeah, loud and clear. Yami, you can hear to?"

"_Everything's clear on me and BlackGatomon's end," _she replied. _"Chrotojil?"_

"_Of course everything's ok, everything's going through _my _medawatch!" _Chrotojil replied.

"_Alright, let's go over the plan one more time," DC said. "Shoutmon, you're gonna go to the front door. The speakers from the concert are still there so hook your mic into them, you'll be able to blast back anything short of a Robo-Empress. In the meantime, me and Chrome will go through the water duct that they use to transport goods downstream and try to sneak our way in. We'll blast through any resistance."_

"Hey, DC, that seems a bit predictable for a tactic, and it splits our forces making us a lot weaker, are you sure about this?"

"_Shoutmon, were you paying any attention during the planning?" _Yami asked.

"Uh... yeah, sure I was! All I've gotta do is sit here and... wait, engaging the enemy..." Shoutmon was sitting on top of a gigantic black speaker, another one next to him. The front gates of the castle opened up to reveal an army of Robo Emperors and Guardromon marching out to meet him, some Air-Pteras flying out after him.

"I'm back to face you again! I may have lost last time, but with the strength of my friends behind me I have been reborn! **Listen to the music of my soul! I am light in the darkness, the one who rocks out louder than the rest! I am-**"

"There it is! The Shoutmon that escaped from us last time!" A vein appeared on Shoutmon's forehead in annoyance.

"Seriously... you won't let me finish my introduction... now I know how DC feels... Alright then! Let's go!" Shoutmon extended his right hand out and just like he'd expected, his microphone shot out of it, glowing a radiant yellow. He grabbed the handle of the mic, sparks flying from it from the contact, then spun it around like a martial arts staff before planting it on the speakers. "I'll show you the power that I've gained with all my friends..." Shoutmon growled just below his breath, sparks enveloping his whole body, electric arcs travelling from him into the speakers. Slowly, they turned around till they were facing the approaching armies. The speakers all briefly flared with fire for half a second before the flames doused themselves, revealing that one speaker had turned red while one turned yellow. They began vibrating with energy. **"Feel the pride within my soul! Dark Network: Soul Crusher!" **Shoutmon screamed into his microphone, the speakers amplifying his voice. Massive visible soundwaves along with a huge inferno erupted, blasting the approaching Digimon back, the sound of multiple ejected medals accompanied by vaporising Digimon and sparks of green and yellow light.

Meanwhile, DC was listening in through his medawatch, hearing nothing but white noise, interference from the speakers blocking out the sounds. He blocked off the connection to Shoutmon's headphones and turned to Chrotojil.

"Well then partner, let's move on with the plan!" DC and Chrotojil were standing by a stream leading into the front of the castle, the plan already in motion. "Let's do this, with guts and determination!" They turned and charged through the tunnels leading underneath the castle, the light around them fading away into the background as they went deeper into the tunnel. Their sprint slowed into a run, then a slow jog, then a walk, and finally a standstill. The tunnel around them was darker than black, then ends of their noses not even visible.

"Hey, DC, you've got a light?" Chrotojil asked.

"How old exactly do you think I am?" DC asked, probably with narrowed eyes. Nobody could really tell with the inky darkness surrounding them.

"Come on, don't all you teenagers have a light on you all the time?"

"Stop using sterotypes man! I'm too awesome to fall into the same class as the others... Oh wait, I've got a match..."

"Aha! Busted! Why would you need one of those?"

"We were told to prepare like we were going camping, of _course _I've got a match!" DC struck it, the flare of light going up. He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the gloom. Yellow eyes all around them lit up in annoyance and turned to face them. They couldn't see clearly what it was that owned these eyes. DC blinked in shock, then turned to Chrome.

"DC... you didn't see anything did you?" Chrome asked, a tremble noticeable in his voice.

"Nope, nothing at all," DC replied, sweat pouring down his face. "It was just our imaginations..." A low pitched screeching sound echoed through the tunnel. "Let's just turn off the lights... we don't need them anyway do we?"

"No we do not..." DC blew out the match, returning the tunnel to its dark state. "Phew! For a moment there the shadows looked a lot like monsters! Well I guess we can..." The low pitched scream sounded again along with an explosion off to DC's right. Instantly, both of them grabbed eachothers hands and sprinted off in the direction they thought the exit was in, crashing into hard and sometimes sharp objects along the way. They both crashed into a wooden section of a wall. Panicked, they banged the wooden wall, screaming to be let out. DC grabbed a round metal object and started pulling with all his might, then his mind sorting through his panic and remembering what a 'door' was, he twisted it and pushed his way through, Chrome tumbling in after him and not a moment too soon, into a supply room full of food. Explosions sounded behind them, splintered bits of wood and shrapnel flying over their heads. DC turned around to see armies of green and black flying medabots pour through.

"Oh thank goodness!" Chrome sighed. "They're only medabots!"

**Noctobat: MDC**

**Medafighter: Legend Army**

**Specialty: Anti-Air missiles**

**Medal Type: Bat**

**Signature: Anti-Air bombard**

"Right, Chrome, use your machine gun and contain them!" Chrome sprayed bullets into the assaulting Noctobats, pushing some of them back, exploding the missiles of other in the process. "Don't bother trying to destroy them all, just disorient them. We might need you at full strength later on... Let's try set off a few chain reactions here and there to see what happens!" Chrome shot out four missiles, the first one exploding to the right, then the next one going off within the first one's blast radius, then the next one, then the next, then the next. The confusion blinded the bats, sending all of them to the ground in confusion. The roof above their heads began collapsing on top of them, as if just for good measure. Both Chrome and DC turned and ran through and out of the supply room and took the stairs up to the ground level. DC pushed a button on his medawatch as they ran.

"Transport medaparts," he shouted into them. Chrome jumped into the air, his legs getting replaced with a pair of red legs with rocket thrusters on them. Chrome attached himself to DC's back and lifted off, sending them both skyward. DC pushed another button on the medawatch, a picture of Yami appearing on it. "Yami, we're in. Just as I thought, they were expecting us. I've taken out a lot of airborne medabots and Shoutmon's handling the front gate, your entrance route should be clear of almost everything. I'm going to go through the front door and pincer trap them with Shoutmon, you go straight for Zorin. We'll rendezvous at the top floor."

"_Roger that DC, you're actually really good at this! Why weren't you coming up with this stuff when we first entered the village?" _DC rubbed the back of his sheepishly.

"Well, I guess it just takes a while to get me going! Either way, contact me again once you're in!" DC closed the communication and looked up, surprised at how much distance they'd covered. Already they had made it to the open front gate, Chrome showing no signs of stopping. A Guardromon turned around, spotting DC coming. "Uh Chrome, if you could... Aw crud..." They were already moving too fast, there was no stopping, so instead DC brought his arms behind him, ready for impact. He thrust both of his palms forwards into the Guardromon, the moment from Chrome boost pushing it forward, knocking over three or four Digimon in the process. Chrome and DC lost balance, crashing into the ground in a burning wreck, flipping over each other before stopping on the ground, dust obscuring them. Everybody stopped and turned around to stare at them, Shoutmon even stopped singing into his mic.

"What is that?" Somebody asked.

"I dunno, I didn't see clearly."

"Well it's got to be somebody!"

"I hope it's not dangerous, this guys is tough enough already!" The smoke stayed for a while more, then began to settle. The first thing anybody saw was a massive stream of missiles erupting from the dust cloud, obliterating everything in its path. The Guardromon tried retaliating, firing missiles back at them, but every missile prematurely detonated before reaching the dust cloud. A Robo-Empress turned back to face Shoutmon, its digital optics widening in shock as he saw it screaming into its microphone again, the pitch so low that only the medabots could detect it. The dust finally cleared revealing DC and Chrome in more-or-less perfect condition. DC gave Shoutmon a thumbs up.

"I knew you could pull it off, Shoutmon!" Shoutmon gave him a thumbs up back.

"It was easy! I just had to match my frequency to their missiles. Their frequencies are a lot different to yours so you could keep firing on! You were the one who thought of the idea in the first place so I don't know why you're thanking me!"

"Yeah, yeah, that's great guys, but can we finish this?" Chrome asked, steam coming out of his horns to relieve pressure. "I'm starting to get a little tired." DC nodded his head.

From yet another position high up on top of a half destroyed house, Yami watched on at the three of them battling down below.

"Looks like those guys are really ripping it up down there," Yami said as she gripped her digivice tighter. "Wanna give them a hand?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" BlackGatomon replied. Light flashed on Yami's digivice.

"We're in the digital world, so you should be able to go mega level here if we Bio-Merge," Yami said.

"Yay! Yay! Mega level!" The whole building flared up in a deep purple light.

"Alright then! Let's go! Bio-Merge activate!" Both Tamer and Digimon rose into the air, their body's pulsing with energy. Yami hovered in front of BlackGatomon, her back facing her Digimon's front. They slowly got closer together until they were literally moving into eachother.

"**BlackGatomon, Bio-Merge to..." **Again, BlackGatomon stretched out to the full length of a grown woman as soon as she joined with Yami, though this time things were different. The claw on her right hand stretched out even more into a yellow claw with ridges all over it, her left hand forming more elegantly, the finger nails painted blood red. Her skin filled with colour from its former pale grey shade and she donned a traditional black Japanese kimono with the shoulders hanging sloppily off, seemingly on purpose for added attraction. Her raven black hair flowed down to the small of her back, framing her beautiful face perfectly. The only thing wrong with her face at all were the small vampire like fangs that showed over her lips with their purple lipstick. **"Lilithmon!"**

Yami opened her eyes to find herself in Lilithmon's body, or perhaps you could say that Lilithmon opened her eyes to find herself in Yami's body. Lilithmon looked herself over with a sly smile.

"My my, I truly am a thing of beauty aren't I?" Lilithmon said, admiring her form.

"Yami? Did you and BlackGatomon just fuse together?" DC asked as he'd seen the whole transformation on his medawatch.

"Yes, and it did wonders for me didn't it?" Information on Lilithmon transferred across from Yami's digivice to DC's medawatcch.

**Lilithmon: Virus type, Mega Level**

**Tamer: Merged with Yami**

**A powerful Virus type Digimon, it is one of the few Digimon at the level of strength of a Demon Lord. It is known as the Demon Lord of Lust. Don't be fooled by its mesmerizing appearance; it's **_**Nazar Nail **_**on its right arm posses a highly volatile acid that corrodes anything it touches. Even without its claw, it iis EXTREMELY dangerous and unpredictable. Regardless of whether you are a friend of foe, you should exercise extreme caution around it.**

_Oh no, this could be tricky, _DC thought to himself. "Ok, but the plan! Don't forget the plan! Now is your cue!"

"I'll only follow the plan if you say that I'm the most beautiful being in the entire galaxy!"

"Wh-what? Are you serious?!" DC yelled into the medawatch as an explosion went off right next to him. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just say it!"

"Ok ok! I'll say it!" DC put his hand to his forehead and tried his very best to hide his blush, though it wasn't very hard considering the tone of his skin. "Um... you're the... uh... you're... the most beautiful being... in the entire galaxy..."

"Oh really? Why thank you DC, that's so sweat of you to say that! I have to admit, I _did _go on a diet and all..."

"**Just go!" **Shoutmon yelled, being true to his name.

"Alright I'm going! Sheesh, no need to be so touchy..." Lilithmon bent her knees readily and jumped, shooting straight through a cloud with her height. She hovered in the air momentarily, admiring the clouds, before falling down again, heading straight for the middle of the castle. She extended her right arm outwards and crashed straight through the castle with it. The screams of several Digimon and Medabots were heard before being silenced by what sounded like the roars of some kind of unearthly creature. The data of defeated Digimon and strewn medaparts flew out of the hole in the roof like party streamers. DC and Shoutmon dusted off their hands like it was all in a days work.

"Alright then, let's go inside the castle," DC said. They began running in through the front door, Shoutmon's V furrowed in thought. Suddenly, Shoutmon's eyes widened in shock as he finally understood the plan.

"DC, Chrome, I get it now! A head-on assault wouldn't have worked against so many enemies, and my guerrilla fighting wasn't laying so much as a dent in them, so you decided instead that you would empty the castle and head straight for the leader with our strongest member! You got me to attack at the front since I had the attacks that could defeat multiple enemies at once while you and Chrome went around the side. They would obviously expect and had guards stationed there. You knew that they knew that you knew the front would be attacked by a Digimon and so they set up medabots there. You purposefully fell for that trap so that once they thought they had you, you could isolate them in the tunnel and stores. You could then join me and pincer them from the front with me!"

"Wow, you really thought my thinking through..." DC said.

"Yeah, but that isn't enough for you is it? Now that you'd effectively split their forces and destroyed them individually, you would still have the problem of trying to break through the enemies inside the castle, and then still keep the strength for the bosses inside right? And that's were LadyDevimon comes in, or Lilithmon as she is now. She would then do the one thing they wouldn't expect; attack from above! Nobody bothers to look up in the first place, and they didn't know we had a Digimon that could fly apart from LadyDevimon, and she wouldn't be strong enough to break through the roof of a reinforced Shogunate castle so they wouldn't really defend it that well. So once Gatomon said she could go mega level, you instantly put them to the job of going through the roof and destroying the few remaining elite troops inside that are too strong for us. By this time all the communication lines would've been disrupted from us splitting their forces, the remainder of their troops in the castle and on patrol wouldn't be able to get to us effectively in time. We then regroup in the centre of the castle and kick the bad guy's butts together! Once the leaders down, the rest of the force will then break apart and retreat, hopefully thinking they were defeated by a massive army. That's amazing DC!" DC didn't even try to be humble about it, he grabbed the tip of his cap, a cocky smile on his face.

"I know right? That's some military grade stuff right there. When we come out the victors, remember to thank me for this!" Chrotojil rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

"Don't inflate his head anymore than it already is. We're still practically outnumbered six million to one so we're not out of the water yet."

"Oh yeah, that's true," Shoutmon said dejectedly before brightening up again. "Well it doesn't matter! I've seen what you guys can do first hand! You guys are monsters! Together we can overcome anything!"

"Let's sure hope so," DC said, suddenly getting serious. "I don't want another defeat on my military history..." True to his style, he suddenly bounced back with a dark yet cocky anime expression so serious and out of character that it was comical. "Everything must be pah-fect! There must be no errors! Now go my loyal soldiers and sacrifice your lives for me!"

"Shut up," both Shoutmon and Chrotojil said at once. Before they knew it, they had arrived at the top floor of the castle, destroyed medaparts littering the floor. Lilithmon put her hands on her hips in contentment.

"Well I haven't had a workout that good in a long time," she said. "Let's do that again sometime!" A Guardromon was hiding behind a wall, waiting for a chance to strike. Chrotojil just spotted it as soon as it stepped out to fire. He sprinted away from his group, moving faster than he could think and pushed her out of the way. A missile fired, as usual it was the large bullet blowing a whistle. It impacted, blasting Chrome back into DC's arms.

"Chrome, are you alright?" DC asked.

"Don't take me out coach..." Chrome replied, swirls spinning around in his optics.

**Warning, head medapart 48% damage, all other medaparts 50% damage. Medal deficiency active.**

"He's okay," DC said. "He just needs a bit of rest, that's all."

"You just wait there darling, I'll get him for you," Lilithmon said before facing the Guardromon with anger. She pushed off with her foot towards the Guardromon, slicing its left arm off. The arm fell to the floor, bubbling up with a green acid. The Guardromon tottered backwards malfunctioning before Lilithmon gave it a roundhouse kick, sending it flying out of the window, data flying off of it as it vanished from sight. Just then, Lilithmon began shaking slightly, digital blocks or pixels enlarging on her. Lilithmon looked at her hands in confusion.

"Heh? What's going on? How come I'm..." before she could get another word out, light shone off of her, then two smaller lights split from her and landed on the ground as Lilithmon disappeared. Yami and BlackGatomon were on their knees on the floor, breathing heavily.

"Yami, how come we split up early?" Gatomon asked.

"I don't know, I haven't done this in a long time, I'm a bit rusty," Yami replied. DC's face went pale with worry. Shoutmon looked at DC with worry.

"Hey general, what's wrong?"

"I didn't take this into account," DC said. "I forgot to ask about how you two hit mega level, so I didn't know it was a fusion. If I'd asked and known, I would have made preparations for something so risky. With our strongest players out of the game, our chances of winning have shrunk drastically! We still have to fight that Andromon, a Zorin, and maybe a Rox and Tyrellbeetle as well. Even worse if they have other Digimon we don't know about..."

"Then we'll just have to beat the odds anyway!" Shoutmon said.

"Yeah, we didn't have much chance of even making it this far in the first place," BlackGatomon pointed out. "But that didn't stop us then and it won't stop us now!"

"Hmm... well, I guess we don't have a choice but to try anyway," DC said shrugging his shoulders. "Let's go then. Onward, to victory!" There was a large sliding panel door separating the room they were in from the Shogun of the castle, so that would have to be where the boy with the Zorin was. As if to demonstrate their rage, Shoutmon tore the sliding panel down with his microphone, the group minus Chrotojil stepping in after him. Sitting in a throne that looked like it was made for a giant was the boy with blue hair, sitting cross legged with his Zorin next to him. On his other side was a slightly oversized Tyrellbeetle without its horns and with a gigantic sword on its back. No, that wasn't a Tyrellbeetle at all.

"Oh come on, how does he even _have _that?!"

**Gigaton (Grand Slam Mark II): Extreme Tech/Medabot Corporation/ Zuru's Workshop**

**Medafighter: ?**

**Specialty: Grand Slam attacks**

**Medal Type: Kuwagata**

**Signature: Giga Slam**

"DC, what is that medabot?" Yami asked.

"That's a Gigaton," he replied. "Slow, but ridiculously powerful. I'd guess it's got the raw power of an Ultimate level, can't really tell. Too used to medabots and the like. Either way, one shot from that thing could kill us." As if the situation wasn't bleak enough already, Andromon stepped out from behind the throne, a force of at least twenty Guardromon and ten more Robo Emperors with him. His blue eyes were filled with rage at the destruction of his troops.

"You shall pay for what you've done to my men!" he screamed at them. "I'll show you! I'll show you all!" His arm started rotating with power, his fingers together like the blade of a sword. He swung down, the blue wave of energy coming off of them. Shoutmon got in the way, stopping the attack dead with his mic before flinging it back. It hit him in the face, knocking him off balance before Gatomon could jump up at him and punch him hard, sending him into his troops. The Guardromon all fired their missiles, the Robo-Emperors joining in with their bombards. Shoutmon screamed into his mic in rage, blowing up all the incoming attacks at once. Zorin didn't seem to care about the noise and charged right through, punching Shoutmon in the gut and sending him back into DC. He then turned around to face Gatomon. Before she even had time to react he was gone and behind her, holding her arms behind her back. Gigaton got up with deliberate slowness. He drew the sword from his back and with a bit more speed than Zuru's Gigaton, he swung the sword, the wind smashing into Gatomon just as soon as Zoring let go and escaped, sending her crashing into a wall.

"Shoutmon, get up!" DC called. "Don't let Gigaton touch you, we have to shut it down immediately! Use that Dark Network attack of yours!" Shoutmon got up dizzily before shaking his head.

"I can't, my power still feels a bit fuzzy. I need to connect to an amp to use it. But I've got a better idea anyway." Gigaton jumped into the air and came crashing down sword first. Shoutmon's eyes began glowing red with rage.

"Give me back my friends you creep! **Rowdy Rocker!**" He swung his own mic upwards, colliding with Gigaton's blade. The floor beneath him dented inwards in a large crater, almost breaking entirely. Shoutmon pushed up with all his might, sendind Gigaton back into the air. He jumped up after it and smashed down on its head, smashing it back down into the ground and through to the floor below. "If we're too weak to fight you head on, we'll just send you were your can't fight me!"

A huge blue wave crashed into Shoutmon, sending him into a wall. Andromon still looked mad. Yami twirled a card between her fingers and slid it through her digivice. Gatomon wiped the rubble around her off and roared like a lion as her paws lit up with fire. She held her fist behind her.

"Take this you jerk! **Fist of the Beast King!**" She punched, a massive lion's head coming out of the fist, blasting both Zorin and Andromon onto the ground. Andromon stood up again, panic gripping him.

"I can't believe that these rookies of war are actually beating me... I guess I have no choice but to use _that_..." Andromon took out what looked like a type of digivice from underneath the metal in his leg. It was black with a dark purple screen, about the size of an old brick phone. There was a circle button with a touchpad around it like you would see on an old ipod. The screen was framed by what looked like a pair of sharp teeth.

"What kind of Digivice is that?" Yami asked. "I've never seen something like that before!"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Gatomon said. Andromon held up the digivice in the air.

"Come my minions! Come and feed me with your power!" A green Guardromon that looked like the leader let out steam from its chest in panic.

"Um, sir, are you sure about this? Are you certain this is really such a good idea? We've worked hard for you this whole time, you can't possibly be thinking of using..."

"**Forced DigiXross!" **All the Guardromon began glowing purple, lightning zapping them painfully as they all were dragged towards Andromon. The group looked in horror as Andromon seemingly absorbed them all like common food.

"There's no way... Is he eating them?!" DC asked in horror.

"That's low, even for the Legend Army," Shoutmon spat in disgust. By the time all of the Guardromon had been absorbed, Andromon had turned red, his whole body now completely clad in a red and black metal, no soft spots sticking out anymore but his eyes. He laughed maniacally, completely entoxicated by his newfound power.

"Finally... I've reached a stage beyond Ultimate level! I am Hi-Power Andromon! I cannot be defeated! I am the pinnacle of evolution!" Gatomon charged at him again only to be batted aside with the back of his hand, sent flying through the air while Zorin jumped up and kicked her back to the ground like a soccer ball.

"Yami... he's too strong... I can't win unless we become Lilithmon again!"

"I know, but the digivice isn't responding. It's like it can't handle the flow of power anymore!" Shoutmon just got up silently, rage bubbling up inside of him.

"I can't believe you'd sacrifice the lives of your troops just to make yourself stronger... Those Digimon who would give up their lives just to make you stronger... How is it fair that somebody like you can do something like that and still have comrades while you steal mine away from me? But I'm not just going to take this lying down... I'll stop you... **I'll never forgive you for this!**" Zorin tried charging at him. DC smiled as if it was him who was powering up instead.

"Shoutmon, show them your pride! They don't know the meaning of true friendship! Use the power of your body, mind and soul together, and project it through your fighting spirit!" Shoutmon charged at Zorin. They clashed in the middle, Zorin's claws against Shoutmon's mic. They traded blows before zorin got sent flying back. Hi-Andromon fired missiles from just about everywhere on his body. "Use your Soul Crusher at the frequency of those missiles, then decrease the pitch!" Shoutmon screamed into his mic, obliterating the missiles before they could touch him, then decreased his pitch, the very floorboards trembling. The already damaged roof above their heads collapsed onto Hi-Andromon's body. He blasted the rubble off of himself in rage and shot off towards Shoutmon. Shoutmon received a punch to the gut, sending him somersaulting through the air and onto the floor. He got up, barely noticing the huge gashes on his arms. He generated a note shaped fireball in his hand.

"Take this! **Rock Damashii!**" He hurled the fireball at Hi-Andromon, a short guitar riff playing as it travelled through the air. It crashed into him, knocking him almost completely off balance.

"What? A rookie Digimon fighting with the force of an Ultimate? What's wrong with you? Are you a mutation? You still pales by comparison to me though... You'll never be able to defeat me insect!" Right on cue, Gigaton jumped back up to the stage, now more angry than ever. DC chuckled to himself.

"Oh really? You think that I was trying to defeat you? Of course I can't defeat you without Lilithmon at the scene! But was that actually my objective?"

"What're you talking about? Of course it was your objective!"

"Well, you're right. But that doesn't mean I had to do it _personally_!" Both Hi-Andromon and the blue haired kid looked at DC with confusion. Then, they heard it. A low rumbling at first along with a few dull thuds. Then, it happened.

"**V-Breath Arrow!" **A massive V-shaped laser smashed through the wall, almost slicing Zorin in half as it ripped through its leg medaparts. He collapsed to the floor, unable to walk. Through the wall came what looked like a pot-bellied dinosaur with surprisingly muscular arms and a white bellt. It had large green eyes and a yellow V tattooed across its forehead and stomach. Riding on its back was Hiro, holding up his D-3 digivice. Another crash sounded at the other wall with what looked like a cyborg wolf Digimon and Greymon, Ryuuga next to them both. The biggest crash then sounded behind them, a huge medaforce beam blasting through the door and going straight through Hi-Andromon, frying his circuits before finally passing, leaving him as a damaged wreck on the floor. Ikki entered the room, Metabee standing next to him, still glowing medaforce green. Next to him was Windstorm, holding her trusty sword, and Queen Bee holding a defeated Totalizer over her shoulder effortlessly. Akkiana and Aokshi both fell through the hole in the ceiling.

"Aokshi, let's do this! Use a full power Yin medaforce, I'll generate the Yang!" Both of them together held their hand together in a shared martial arts stance, generating a swirling yin and yang ball of energy. Zorin rushed over to stop it, but found he had only made it in time to take the attack directly to his face. There was no need to read the 100% damage indicator. Just then, Gigaton sprinted (something that nobody had been expecting) at Aokshi and with a colossal swing of his sword, sent him flying out of the castle again. Blackbeetle and Saikachis appeared from the side the blue dinosaur Digimon appeared, firing machine gun bullets at Gigaton with little effect.

"Leo, bullets don't work on this guy!" Blackbeetle said.

"Keep on firing, maybe if Metabee can recover a bit, he can blast it with a second dose of medaforce." Bright purple flashed from Ikki's direction.

"No need for that!" Windstorm yelled. A dark purple medaforce aura enveloped her, the whole room going dark.

**Medaforce type 1: Type Crash unlocked.**

**Medaforce type 2: Dice Attack unlocked.**

**Medaforce type 1, Type Crash active.**

"It can't be... The medaforce?" Ikki asked in surprise. "Miss Nae was right, you have a rare medal!" Panels that didn't exist before opened up all over Windstorm's body. Missiles, missiles upon missiles, more missiles, rockets, machine guns, chain machine guns, gatling guns, rifles, lasers, high power rifles, positron lasers, grenades, rocket propelled grenades, semtek explosives, c4, every single type of fire arm imaginable was visible on Windstorm, even what looked like a pellet gun all pointed at Gigaton and Hi-Andromon who looked like he was just getting up.

"**It's time, to kiss your bot goodbye! Medaforce!" **Every gun on her fired, a flash of missiles, bullets, tracers, fireworks, flames and lights of all kind travelling through the air, smashing into the medabot and Digimon in a highly decorative display. Explosions went off everywhere, the very foundations of the castle shaken. Everyone who was in the room got blasted straight back out of it again, and if they were pressed against a wall, that went down too. Dust cleared, Ikki coughing as he tried to stand up again. There was nothing left of Gigaton, and not much of Hi-Andromon either but his digivice which Hiro picked up and stared at inquisitively. As usual, the boy and his Zorin had gotten away somehow. DC popped his head up from beneath a pile of rubble, a toothy grin on his face.

"That, was totally awesome!" he shouted. "Aw man guys, you totally missed the best part, get this, BlackGatomon and Yami _fused _together and made this super cool Digimon called Lilithmon! And there was just stuff blowing up everywhere! And Shoutmon hooked up his mic to the speakers and blasted a whole battalion to pieces! And, and,"

"Whoa, slow down," Leo said. "Who's BlackGatomon? And what's a Shoutmon anyway? And more importantly, what do you think you were doing fighting those guys with just you guys alone? You could've gotten seriously hurt, or even killed!"

"Wow, you're talking to me like I'm a little kid..."

"That's because you're acting like one! So instead of waiting for us to arrive so we could fight together, you instead attack them head-on simply because you found it more heroic? I might not know what exactly happened here but Yami relayed to us the story in the morning with the distress signal on her digivice. What were you thinking?"

"Hey, this time I wasn't just being my usual bull-headed self!" DC said. "Think about this for a second. What would've happened if I'd waited for all of you to arrive? You would've marched through the streets destroying everything in sight, bad guys mainly but also buildings. _Homes!_ Think about Ikki's fighting style! He uses his surroundings to his advantage right? What would he have done if he had to fight through the army we just took out? The whole city would become his playground! You were there with us when Medaropolis got invaded so you've seen that guy at work yourself!"

"Hey guys," Ikki cut in. "Can we not talk about me like I'm not in the same room?"

"**This doesn't concern you, you stay out of this!**" both DC and Leo yelled back at the same time before resuming the argument. Ikki just sighed in exhaustion.

"I'll go look for the prisoners..."

* * *

><p>The castle was given back to ShogunGeckomon, who pretty much looked like a red overweight Geckomon who was twenty feet tall. He laughed with joy upon seeing his royal subjects free again, his tuba tooting with each guffaw. Shoutmon got back together with the rest of his band, Lilymon included, but sobered quite a bit once he heard from Etemon that Leomon passed away shortly after he got knocked out. Even so, it was time for the troupe to leave. The whole village waved them off at the village gate, but not after stocking up their food supplies and telling them which way the legend spaceship went. Shoutmon stayed really silent during the whole meeting as the group went off to their next destination. Etemon looked at Shoutmon, the sun glinting off of his shades.<p>

"You wanna go with that boy don't you kid?" Etemon asked. Shoutmon looked up at him.

"What? Me go with a human? No way, I wouldn't do that! And besides, we're Dark Network right? We've gotta stick together!"

"We don't even have a drummer kid," Etemon said. "Now you listen now and you listen good, you've gone a long way in the space of a few weeks. I'm sorry about everything I said about Rookie's not being able to protect anybody. You've got what it takes after all. Now go. That kid relit the fire in your heart and that's worth all the approval I can give. Find your family with those two fellows you liked so much. Who knows? Maybe one day you'll become an Ultimate like me, or even a Mega?"

"Is it really okay Etemon? I have to get them for what they did to Leomon."

"Oh just listen to the monkey," Lillymon said. "Beat them all up for me! I tried to, honest I did! But that stupid walking tin opener and his knife got me... Go beat them for me!" Shoutmon nodded his head affirmatively. He ran off after the group.

"Hey! DC! Chrome! Yami! Gatomon! Wait for me! I'm coming with you!" DC turned around and smiled.

"Well it's about time! We were seriously gonna leave you behind!" DC and Chrome ran back to Shoutmon and they met halfway, three-way fist bumping. "Now come on, you have to pull your own weight here. Just a rule you should know, all chocolate goes to me. We clear? Now lets got!"

* * *

><p>Two familiar figures stood atop a hill, looking down at the Minstrel Village below them. One of them was the same kid who was heading the invasion in the first place, the other was a girl with violet eyes and dark purple hair, wearing a revealing tank top and ripped jeans.<p>

"Well it looks like I've lost yet again to Ikki's team," he said. "It was a lot of fun taking this place over."

"You find everything fun... Was it really the right thing to do, taking over Minstrel I mean?" the girl asked.

"Don't bother questioning the means, the end shall justify it."

"The means is in the method you know..." The boy turned to her, his eyes obscured as usual.

"Just think about your area, I'll deal with the boss here," he said before walking off. She looked at the village again, sadness in her eyes before turning to walk off herself...


	26. Where Spirit may Falter

**I have returned from the pits of the underworld known as NaNoWriMo! With passion behind my fingers I typed on during the last few hours of NaNoWriMo! And... I FAILED! I had another 8,000 words to go, but there was some large school end of year disco/boarders dinner thing going on so I had to waste an hour or two there (was a lot of fun so whatever) then sneak out halfway through. And during the first half of November I showed the prologue to my best friend... and she gave me a negative review back which I can take from everybody BUT her I guess... which caused me to stop and rethink it and procrastinate for the first fifteen days, wasting a hell-of-a-lot-of-time. Shame, once I started writing again it was AWESOME! I suppose it was just that I was lacking this thing... Wanna know what 'this thing' is? Well, ****THIS IS SPIRIT! CLASH OF SOULS!**

**Presented and written by This is the Real Deal. Thank you very much. ****I don't own Medabots, Beyblade, Digimon or whatever, this is a work of fanfiction. ****Now on with the Spirit!**

**Chapter 26: Where Spirit may Falter**

"The Digital World is awesome!" Ikki yelled with glee as he stared at the object before him in disbelief.

"Yes, it really is something isn't it?" Ryuga replied with a smile.

"I have to admit, I didn't expect this at all!" Leo said. Before them was a massive tree with broad green leaves, but instead of fruit hanging from its branches, there were large hunks of beef with large bones going through them.

"I still find it weird that meat doesn't grow on trees in your world," Agumon said, chewing on a piece of meat he'd roasted himself. Shoutmon and DC were climbing halfway up the tree already, scrambling to get at the food before they both fell on their head back down to the ground.

"Well, we might as well stop by here," Akkia said. "We don't really have a very good idea where the enemy is, so nothing's really wrong with stopping for a break. Under a meat tree." Yet again, everybody took out there food stores or plucked from the odd tree. Ikki yawned and put his hands behind his head, finally getting a proper chance to rest. As soon as his head touched the ground he was out cold.

"Hey Ikki, my medaparts have been feeling a little stiff ever since that last battle at the castle. Can you check them out for me?" Ikki replied with an earth rumbling snore. "I guess that means later..." Metabee left him to rest and walked over to where the others were eating. DC and Chrotojil were busy recounting there daring exploits trying to invade the castle, Shoutmon playing Andromon and most of the enemies.

"... And suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by twenty Mega-Emperors, all of them filled with negative energy ready to rip us limb from limb!" DC shouted animatedly, back-to-back with Chrome looking around himself as if for danger while Shoutmon stood facing him, crouched down a seemingly insane smile on his face, his tongue hanging out villainously.

"But we weren't scared at all," Chrome said. "I said 'I can never be scared with DC by my side!' and we worked together like KAPOW!" DC and Chrome punched together short of Shoutmon. Shoutmon leaped backwards clutching his heart.

"Ah! They've got me! And now I shall die!" He collapsed on the floor, his legs swinging into the air before landing flat on the ground again. Everyone seated on the picnic blanket laughed at their hysterics.

"But it wasn't over yet," DC said. "For just when we thought we were safe from the fifty Mega-Emperor-slash-Redruns, _he _appeared!" Shoutmon sprung back up on his feet, his face now filled with anger.

"Haha! I have reached a stage past Ultimate level, the pinnacle of evolution, I have all the powers of a god! I am Hi-Andromon! Hahaha!" Chrome picked up a stick and swung it around his head angrily, now playing Shoutmon.

"I will never forgive yooooooooooouuuuuuuu!" He swung the stick powerfully at Shoutmon's head, who just barely ducked beneath it, clutching the tips of his V.

"Hey watch it Chrome! You nearly knocked my head off!"

"Sorry... And I'm not Chrome, I'm Shoutmon!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot!" Metabee stuck around until the end of the performance, but it was already nearly finished and he found he was back where he started once the crowd all dispersed to do their own things. Now starting to get annoyed as well as bored, he spotted Hiro and Leo by the side of a tree, comparing Hiro's digivice with the new one he picked up. The conversation seemed a bit too complicated for Metabee's tastes, so he ended up leaving them to. He sighed, letting out a puff of steam from his horns in the process.

"Well, I guess that this is my alone time... Whatever. Metabee needs time to recompose his thoughts." He lied down on a large root, his hands behind his head, shutting off his optics.

"Hey tin-can!" a sharp voice sounded by his head. Metabee jerked awake in shock, rolling over with his laser cannons raised. Windstorm raised her hands showing no weapons, if you ignored the fact that her whole body essentially was a weapon at least. "Take it easy, I'm not gonna hurt you!"

"Oh, it's just you," Metabee said, lowering his rifle. "I thought it was something weird like 'assassinmon' or 'instant-deathmon!'" Windstorm laughed.

"Yeah, weird how all their names end in 'mon'. How about... Wait, I'm not here to make up Digimon names! Come on, follow me! I found something cool you should see!" Metabee groaned. He'd just had enough of looking for people and things to do, and yet now when he wanted to rest someone came right up to him.

"Can you call me in two more minutes? I'm just getting into my happy place..." Windstorm shook her head rapidly.

"No no no! You've got to come now! This is so cool, you have to see it!" Before he could protest, she yanked him up by his arm and grabbing her hand, ran in a random direction, Metabee struggling to keep up with her.

"Hey! Slow down will ya? I'm not designed for this kind of thing!"

"Be glad I chose to stay on the ground already! Just follow me!" They ran further and further away from the group until they couldn't even see them anymore. Windstorm started flying anyway, forcing Metabee into action mode to keep up. They kept going, delving into the depths of a dense jungle, the shift from wide open plains to a dense and abstract rainforest unnerving to Metabee. He transformed back once his wheels started getting caught in the tree roots, some of them looking suspiciously like cables. The sound of rushing water was in the background, accompanied by strange bird calls and croaks all around him. The sun was filtered through the trees, landing on the floor as a kind of green haze. Windstorm was lost from sight.

"Hey Windstorm, where are you?" Metabee called. "I've lost you."

"I'm over here!" she replied from somewhere ahead of him. "Just keep going! Sheesh, you're really slow in the forest, aren't you designed to work well in this kind of place?"

"I can move through _forests_, not _jungles_! There's a difference!" Metabee replied angrily.

"Whatever, just keep moving straight." Metabee kept walking forward cautiously. He moved a vine out of the way. A mess of pink feathers flapped frantically in his face, beating him backwards and onto the floor. A plump bird digimon flew over his head and out of the top canopy of trees. Metabee was starting to lose his patience.

"Metabee's starting to lose his patience," Metabee said, echoing his thoughts exactly.

"Seriously? _Just walk straight!_" Metabee got back up again with a sigh and brushed the rest of the branches out of the way. He slowed down a bit as he came out of the dense jungle, his optics widening. There was a huge waterfall rushing down in a cascading torrent, the waterfall crashing down into a serene looking pool area filled with rocks. Exotic plants hung their heads over the river, shielding it from the sun apart from one rocky area in the river. Yellow lights floated mysteriously in the air, hanging gracefully in front of Metabee's eyes. What looked like an enormous oak tree, out of place with the exotic jungle growth, grew in the very middle of the lake at the bottom of the waterfall. The tree rose far above the tops of all the other trees, reaching higher than twenty metres. Metabee couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it earlier; it was like the tree was magically placed there without him noticing. The whole area seemed completely at ease, the troubles of the outside world having never touched it. Not even digimon where there.

"Whoa... what is all this?" Metabee asked, his medal feeling soothed just at the sight of the place. Windstorm poked her head out of the oak tree, her violet eyes sparkling.

"Awesome isn't it?" Windstorm asked. "I found this place myself when I was flying over looking bored. I'm glad I found it." Metabee was to, looking behind him as if to make sure nobody had followed him in.

"This would be so cool if we brought everyone else here to," Metabee said.

"No way!" Windstorm yelled angrily. "They'd probably muck everything up and snap all the branches and fill the lake with hot sauce or something. Just think of what would happen if we brought Shoutmon here, he'd probably end up burning it down!"

"Yeah, he doesn't have the best of luck with fires... Okay, you're right, I won't tell a soul about this place, and you bring me up to that branch you're in, deal?"

"Alright tin-can, I'll haul you up." Windstorm leaped out of the tree, somersaulting through the air before landing softly in front of Metabee. She held out her hand and Metabee grabbed it. She jumped into the air, Metabee hanging on for dear life before finally she dropped him in the tree branches. The twigs and branches scraped his parts, scratching some paint off. He didn't really mind, he could always get Ikki to repaint him later. It's not like there was any major damage done. Windstorm landed softly next to him, their elbows rubbing. "I bet you were just looking for some time to relax weren't you?"

"Well yeah I guess," Metabee said, the sound of the water feeling like it was lapping over his medal. "So much stuff has happened, I almost forgot to stop and smell the roses."

"Good thing you've got me here to remind you!" Windstorm said happily.

"Yeah, I guess..." Windstorm looked at him with a frown. She hovered out of her perch and hung upside down in front of him, her eyes showing worry.

"Okay, what's up with you?" she asked.

"Nothing! I'm just sleepy and all. I like my rest you know..."

"Seriously? This is probably the one time I'm _ever _going to act nice to you so your stupid mood better not mess things up for me. For real, what's bothering you?"

"Come on, you even said it yourself, I just need to smell the roses, that's all!"

"You can't smell them if you nose is blocked! Well... if you had a nose. You know what I mean!"

"Well... It just feels like..." Metabee paused for a bit, searching for the right words. "It feels like we've kind of faded into the background of things don't you think? I mean, think about it. Before we started travelling and all that, we were like the next big thing! Everyone was talking about the new and improved Metabee you know? And this new mysterious experimental medabot with the strength of a hurricane! It felt like we were actually going to be the stuff you know! And Ikki just looked like he was going to keep getting stronger and stronger than before, it looked perfect! The only thing bad once we started travelling was the ton of schoolbooks that were mailed after Ikki! Now _I've _gotta help him out... But the books aren't the problem! Now it feels more like we're a distraction then important members of the team. Face it, these digimon are way too tough for us, and we have no idea how to even fight beyblades. The real powerhouses here are Ryuga and Yami. Even DC ended up trading Chrome for Shoutmon, what if that happens to us?"

"Metabee, don't be silly!" Windstorm laughed.

"I'm serious!"

"Well even then you're pretty stupid! DC didn't trade away Chrotojil, in fact for simply surviving for so long they might even be even closer friends! Heck, DC's just added _another _team member to our ranks!"

"And how long before Chrotojil notices how useless we've become? Even my medaforce doesn't hurt these guys, that's the only advantage medabots have over Digimon you know! What's the point if I can't even do anything?"

"Metabee, wanna know why your medaforce was useless compared to mine? In fact, I shouldn't have to tell you, you should already know!"

"I should? Really?"

"Of course man, think of it! Try and remember Metabee, all of us have heard of this, by know you should already remember, what happened during the rise of the kilobots? Do you remember?" Metabee thought back, his memory hazy and clouded over. It was like a mist had covered his mind and he couldn't lift it.

"I can't... Really remember... There were new types of medabots being made... But..."

"Come on Metabee, try and remember! I could only activate my medaforce because of you, and those memories are the key!" Metabee shook his head negatively. "Okay, then let me help you remember." Windstorm shut off her optics, purple medaforce energy radiating off of her body.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Metabee asked worriedly as she brought her hand up to his forehead. He recoiled before she could touch him.

"Hold still you brat, I'm not gonna hurt you! Even if I wanted to, this is your energy in the first place!"

"Huh? It is?" Windstorm gently touched his forehead lightly. As if in response, Metabee started glowing green himself. "Whoa... What is this? Your medaforce feels familiar... And way stronger... What is this?"

"You're slow you know that? This is the power that you had learnt through fighting against oppression, battling against unstoppable odds, the combined wills of both you and Ikki, a medaforce so powerful that it could even hurt kilobots with no _souls_!" Metabee looked at her questioningly before his optics glazed over completely, his conscious mind lost within himself.

. . .

Metabee's eyes flashed open again. He was completely surrounded by darkness. He looked at his hands, a faint green aura surrounding them. He felt like he was suspended in empty space, floating without any support.

"Hello? Anybody there? Ikki? Windstorm?"

"I'm right here tin-can," Windstorm replied in the gloom, appearing next to him.

"Hey, where are we?" Metabee asked nervously, the darkness starting to get to him.

"We're inside your head. It's even roomier than I thought but I suppose it will have to do..."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"It doesn't matter what it means," Windstorm replied. "Now hush up for a second while I try and release whatever idiotic barricade you placed on yourself..." Windstorm's purple aura flashed momentarily, blinding him as she raised her hand. When the light was gone, a park with trees in the background was below him. Ikki stood at one side, his medawatch held up to his face. Alongside him was Ginkai and Zuru dressed as the Mystery Medafighter. In front of him was Rox and, oddly enough, Metabee. Arc-Dash stood a bit behind them, dazed.

"Metabee, use the medaforce!"

"Rox, use the medaforce!" Both of them lit up with a rainbow light, the park illuminated by their power. They extended their hands in front of them, blasting out the massive beam of medaforce. Blackbeetle leaped to the side, just barely dodging the strike. Both Metabee and Rox roared with anger, bending the medaforce beam a full three-sixty degrees, sending it right back towards Blackbeetle. The attack struck, Blackbeetle roaring in pain as she collapsed to the ground.

**Warning, 50% damage to all medaparts**

"Yeah, it was pretty strong, but its even weaker than mine now. What's so special about it?" Metabee asked.

"You idiot, forget about the damage that it dealt!" Windstorm said, smacking him on the back of the head with a loud clang. "That blast was forged through the bond you and Rox shared, and did fifty times the amount your regular medaforce did at the time.

"What? My regular medaforce did 1%?"

"Let me finish!" Windstorm yelled angrily, steam escaping from her joints. "Back then, you didn't care how hopeless the situation actually was, you just kept doing stuff which was impossible. I've never told you where I came from have I? Back then I was just a lonely medabot living on the streets. My medafighter tossed me out for a Kilobot. I thought it was hopeless for me to try and keep living. I was always going to be weaker and less popular than the Kilobots, and I was never going to be taken in by a medafighter... Back then, it was watching you and Ikki robattle that inspired hope for me, and all the other rejects to. To see a bond so strong even then, one so powerful it could level even creatures with no souls... The medaforce... The crystallization of friendship itself, the shining beacon in the darkness all of us hoped to achieve... That was all of our dreams, to one day be able to get that kind of friendship with a human, even if the medaforce didn't come with it... I lucked out and met Miss Nae one day. She let me test out all her new medaparts with Honey, and then with the other three elementals we were meant to be able to stop the Kilobots. You guys beat us to it, but we never forgot the hope you inspired in our medals..."

"Windstorm, is that why you didn't like Kilobots at first?"

"Yeah, but after seeing Leo and his Blackbeetle, I figured that as long as they had hearts, they couldn't be _that _bad now could they? But Metabee, this isn't about my thoughts, it's about _you_. Try and remember those feelings you held in your heart back then. Look back on your past, beyond the fog in your motherboard, down to your very soul." Metabee looked back down. Scenes of all the different battles with the Kilobots kept flashing in random order. Every scene had a heavy sense of nostalgia behind it, Metabee's head physically hurting from it all.

"What am I meant to be looking for?" Metabee asked hesitantly.

"You should already know what you're looking for," Windstorm said. "Stop worrying about whether you're useless or not, nobody on the team is useless! Look for the courage to face any enemy, the love for friends that gave you true strength, and the hope to keep going for a better future. Feel all of that power boiling up inside you." Memories flashed rapidly through Metabee's mind, pictures flashing before his optics, noises, sights, feelings beneath his robotic fingers. Everything that was missing came back to him at once, the shock of it feeling like a concrete slab smashing into his face.

"Windstorm... I think I remember... I remember!" The dark air around him began dissolving away like running paint, replaced by the dense jungle again. Windstorm removed her hand from his forehead slowly.

"So, do you remember everything?" Windstorm asked.

"I think so, it's all mucked up but it's there," Metabee said. Suddenly, a gold light began glowing from his back, his medal hatch opening. "Whoa! What's going on?" Metabee asked. Windstorm flew behind him and peered at it curiously. The pupae stage was morphing rapidly, first into a cocoon-like larvae, then into a beetle, and then finally its final stage of a beetle in flight.

"Metabee, your medal changed!"

"What? It changed?" Metabee asked in alarm.

"Yes! It morphed into its final stage! It bypassed every single stage and went straight up to its last form!" Metabee tried looking behind him, twisting his back at an awkward angle.

"Whoa, I can't believe it! All of that just from unlocking my memories?"

"Your locked memories must've also contained hidden battle experience. It must've been a lot more than we all thought."

"Heck yeah! I've already saved the world before! That's right, we saved the world!" Just then, a deep rumbling sounded throughout the jungle, the ground below their feet shaking in an earthquake.

"What was that?" Windstorm asked with worry.

"I don't know, but it sure wasn't me," Metabee replied.

"I know that much you idiot!" The rumbling continued, getting louder and louder. The ground beneath them began shifting and turning beneath their feet. Trees shook violently, looking like they were about to collapse. Metabee fell to the ground unable to balance. Windstorm grabbed his hand, shooting to the sky. A low rumbling roar sounded below them.

"Keep flying!" Metabee yelled. "Get away from the forest!"

"I know I know!" Windstorm yelled back. Metabee looked down again, his optics widening in shock. The waterfall area they were at was fine, but it looked like a portion of the forest was shifting. No, it wasn;t just shifting... It was rising into the sky! Metabee stared at it, if he had a jaw it would be hanging slack open just then. The crackle of a radio transmission sounded in Metabee and Windstorm's heads.

"Metabee, what're you doing? My medawatch started acting up and next thing I know the forest is moving!"

"Ikki! My medal evolved! Can you believe it?"

"Yeah, this isn't the time!" Samantha yelled with her medawatch. "What did you do this time to anger the whole forest?!"

"I don't know, it just started moving!" Windstorm replied angrily.

"That's no forest," Ryuga said in the background with worry. "That's a digimon."

"**What?!" **everybody yelled at once. The section of ground and forest finally left the ground with a roar. The creature looked like an enormous bird made of stone, and growing on its back was a large forest and grass. The creature was the size of a huge garden, and just its head alone was the height of three fully grown men, and the width of a small hut. Its talons were plated with gold armour, with two red strips running along them. Windstorm flew away from the monstrosity, dropping Metabee on the ground outside of the rest of the forest. The rest of the group arrived, all of them ready for action again.

"What did you guys do?!" Akkia asked. "You woke up a bird, made of stone!"

"We're sorry!" Windstorm yelled. "We were just trying to re-activate Metabee's powers!" Hiro looked at the bird with worry on his face, the beast roaring in rage.

"What were you guys doing to anger a member of the Olympos XII?" Hiro asked. "That Digimon there is Ceresmon, normally a kind and gentle Digimon. However the stray amounts of Meda-Energy, a lot of which is human manufactured might be looked at as if it were toxic waste..."

**Ceresmon (Mega): Data type, Mega Level**

**Wild One (no tamer present)**

**Its name is derived from the mythological Ceres, the Roman goddess of nature and agriculture. The forest growing on its back is the Karpos Hul****ē****, a forest filled with the greatest sweets and fruits. Normally kind and gentle, even sheltering injured Digimon, it will gladly share its fruits, however it will reverse its attitude and bring terror as if a demonic forest to those who defile the land**

"Great, you attracted a demon bird Metabee!" Ikki yelled.

"We're sorry!" Metabee and Windstorm yelled at once. The bird roared in rage, vines shooting out of the forest towards the group. Everyone dived to the side, just barely dodging the attack. The ground beneath them rumbled with the vine's impact.

"**Who dares to pollute the lands of my domain?" **A booming feminine voice yelled.

"That huge thing's a _girl?" _Chrotojil asked in shock.

"Yeah, and a very angry one at that," Ryuga said. "At this point it's too late to reason with this thing. We have to go up onto its back and reason with its Medium."

"It's Medium?" Ikki asked.

"Yeah, it's true form. The bird is its Mega form, what it uses to keep itself safe, keep its fruit together and travel the land. Its real body is a lady at the top. That is Ceresmon Medium. It's not very strong. If you can convince her to stop fighting, by force if necessary, we may be able to get out of this alive."

"Alright, let's do this Metabee! Transport leg medaparts!" Metabee's legs flashed before getting replaced by a pair of red phoenix legs with jet boosters for feet. All of the tamers looked to their Digimon partners.

"Veemon, we need your power here," Hiro said, holding up his Digivice, light shining from it. The golden light of evolution shone around him as Veemon began floating in the air, spinning around slowly as if being scanned.

"**Veemon Digivolve to... Veedramon!" **The light disappeared, leaving the blue dinosaur from before, its arms rippling with strength. "It's not over yet folks! **Veedramon Digivolve to...**" The dinosaur's eyes lit up angrily, its size increasing more. Its white belly plated over with enormous armour scales and red and blue wings sprouted from his back. "**AeroVeedramon!" **Ryuga and Yami also held up their Digivices. BlackGatomon became ingulfed in light, turning into LadyDevimon.

"Dorumon, go!"

"Right partner! **Dorumon Digivolve to... DexDorugamon!**" It wasn't over yet, as now his cyborg body started turning a slick black, a thick spiked metal tail growing surrounded by three red and black flesh ones. A large saw toothed horn sprouted from his nose and his claws grew bigger. His black wings turned red with barbs protruding from them. "**Matrix Digivolve to... DexDoruGreymon!"**

"Hey, you're not cutting _me _out of the fun are you?" Agumon asked, digivolving to the hulking Greymon. Samantha smiled, taking out her Beyblade.

"There's no way you're gonna get me up there, so if I can me and Puttycat will try and punch back any blasts that head our way.

"Alright Chrome, now it's your turn," DC said as he pushed a button on his medawatch. Rockets appeared on his legs. DC and Shoutmon grabbed onto his horns as Chrome took to the air. Explosions went off in the sky as everybody fired their cannons at Ceresmon in rage, the bird swatting them all back effortlessly with her enormous wings. AeroVeedramon somersaulted through the air, firing massive V shaped laser beams from his mouth. He looked less like he was fighting and more like he was just having fun. The others however looked much more serious, barely avoiding fatal injuries as thick vines attacked them along with the bird's wings and talons. Ikki and Metabee landed on the creature's back roughly, Windstorm and Chrome with DC landing next to them.

"Now that we're all here, let's stop this thing!" Ikki said. The group ran through the thick overgrowth towards the bird's head. The trees themselves seemed to be shaking in anger, looming over their heads and blocking out an escape route. Ikki looked around him at the vines that were moving around like snakes, as if waiting for a chance to strike.

"Ikki, look out!" Windstorm screamed, pushing him to the ground. He landed with a grunt, the wind leaving his lungs. He turned around in alarm.

"Windstorm, what's going on...?" He stopped mid-sentence. A host of thick vines had wrapped themselves around Windstorm, restricting her movements.

"These plants... It feels like they're trying to suck energy from my medal... It's not working very well since I'm a machine, but if they grab you they'll drain your blood in seconds. Don't let them touch you or DC..."

"HEH?! They're vampire plants?!" DC screamed in alarm. As if to scare him senseless, even more vines shot towards them. Shoutmon and Chrome stood in the way, both clutching Shoutmon's mic.

"**Dark Crusher!" **they screamed together, black flames erupting from the mic, incinerating the vines immediately. The bird roared in pain as the forest around them burst into flames.

"I get it, this thing's weak to fire isn't it?" Ikki said. Shoutmon and Chrome screamed into the mic again, burning the vines that were wrapped around Windstorm.

"Alright, it has a weakness!" DC yelled triumphantly. "Ikki, me and Chrome will hold them off here. Shoutmon will accompany you guys to the Medium in case there are more vines you don't know about. He'll incinerate them."

"I'll stick with you," Windstorm said, what looked like a lightsaber appearing in her hand. "Shoutmon, don't be stupid and burn down the whole bird!"

"Come on, I'm not that careless!" he yelled back at her as they started off at a run towards the bird's head. They emerged from the forest, their surroundings now nothing but the open sky with grass beneath their feet. Ceresmon's massive stone wings beat with power, the wind buffeting all the Digimon still in the air. Standing atop its head was, just as expected, a human-looking woman, her arms spread out like wings.

"Hey miss!" Ikki yelled. "Can't we just talk this out?" The woman turned around, her eyes hidden by a bird inspired gold mask. Ikki's first thoughts upon seeing her were of some kind of Greek Goddess. Viridian vines were wrapped all around her body, and her face seemed cold and angry with nobody being able to see her eyes. She had golden gauntlets and golden armoured boots, green leggings beneath them. Beneath her gauntlets were green gloves made from plant vines (assuming that her actual hands weren't plants themselves) and her torso was mostly bare, her upper torso covered by a grass bra. Ikki resisted the urge to make a quip about her choice of clothing, or rather her lack of it. "This is all just a _really _big misunderstanding, we weren't trying to..."

"Be silent!" she yelled with a booming voice, the air itself compressing as she spoke with authority. Ikki instantly shut up. "Do you have any idea how much radiation was poured into my forest in one go? Your world may be fit for Meda energy, but our world is not! Your foolish machines are the equivalents of a common virus that do nothing but pollute their surroundings!"

"I don't get it," Shoutmon said. "I've never seen Chrome let loose anything poisonous. Does steam count?"

"Ceresmon, Medabots run on some of the cleanest energy in the entire world," Ikki said. "Their electric powered, and even then more of their energy comes directly from their medals. Unless it was charged as a proper medaforce attack, Metabee and Windstorm shouldn't be able to harm a powerful Digimon like you. Don't you think you might be after the wrong guys?"

"This pain... It only started once those two entered my forest. I thought it may have been unintentional, but as soon as they sat down together the pain increased a hundred fold... They have defiled my forest, and for that they must pay!" Ceresmon held up her hand, vines shooting out of it towards Ikki. Metabee fired his machinegun, the laser bullets shredding the vines to pieces.

"Metabee, restrain her," Ikki said. Metabee set off at a run towards Ceresmon. She screamed in rage, the bird letting out a primal roar along with her. Before Metabee could even touch her, she slapped him hard in the face, sending him spinning right off the bird's head through the air. "Metabee!" Ikki screamed, rushing over to the edge of the bird and peering over cautiously. Luckily, Metabee's jets were still attached, and he flew right back up again, only to plop down next to Ikki with a dazed look in his face.

**Warning, 60% damage to head medapart. Slight disorientation. Recalibrating.**

_And he said she wasn't strong, _Ikki thought to himself.

"You'll pay for that!" Shoutmon yelled, as if it was him who was hit. A fireball formed in his right hand. He chucked it with all his might at her face. She batted it aside angrily, walking towards Shoutmon like she had all the time in the world. "I know all about you. You're not really that tough! You're just bluffing. Without your vines and your precious pet parrot, you can't even touch me!" With a roar, Shoutmon started sprinting towards her in rage. She snapped her fingers in irritation. A thick pillar of rock shot out of the ground, slamming into Shoutmon's jaw, sending him backflipping through the air before landing on his back in pain.

"It is true that compared to the other Olympus XII I am weak without the rest of my form, but that is by comparison to them. How can you, who doesn't even reach their feet, hope to stand up to me?"

"Normally I'd say something heroic here," Metabee said as he stood up. "But you're missing the point here. Look, we didn't poison your trees, or your rivers, or your fruits... We didn't even still your chicken! I dunno why we're still fighting, but I'm gonna have to end this quickly..." Ceresmon turned to face him, scorn written plainly on her face. Without wasting any more time, she wrapped her vines around Metabee, lifting him into the air. The vines tightened their hold on him aggressively.

_It doesn't look like Ceresmon's had much experience fighting machines, _Ikki thought to himself rapidly. _That would explain why she's trying to strangle Metabee. But even so, that freakish strength can still crush him outright if I don't do something right now... _Cracks were appearing all over Metabee's armour, a large dent appearing on his chest.

"Ah! Ikki, do something!"

"Transport Queen Bee!" he yelled. The pink flash of Queen Bee appeared before she stood before them.

"No, not another one of you pollutant monsters!" Ceresmon screamed, leaping towards Queen Bee herself. Ikki didn't even have time to put her medal in as she kicked the medaparts right off of the bird's head again.

"No! Transport medaparts!" Ikki yelled, trying to transport the medaparts back before it was too late. Another thin vine wrapped itself around his arm, ripping open the face of Queen Bee's medawatch. It poked around on the machinery inside, forcing electrical sparks to painfully dart up and down Ikki's arm.

**Error, hardware missing. Please replace the... **Ikki didn't bother listening to the rest of the message as he watched helplessely as her medaparts plummeted to the ground.

"Oh man, she's going to kill me when she sees her medaparts after this..." Ikki sighed, knowing the situation finally couldn't get any worse. Until he heard the explosion of course. And felt it too. Coming from beneath his feet. Ceresmon screamed in pain, enourmous stone feathers falling off the bird in boulder-like chunks, threatening to crush everyone below to death.

"Oi oi, what gives?!" Shoutmon questioned in anger as he stood back up with his mic.

"Ikki, I think we might've found our true enemy..." Metabee said quietely. Ikki followed his gaze and froze. Staring right back at him was what could only be the face of their deaths...

**Hmm... I dunno if this is just me but this chapter felt a little weak... Feels like I'm forcing it or something, I dunno. Well, I feel like bringing in some mega levels next chapter and I've gotta get them out of the Digital World at some point so I promise next chapter will be better! Well anyways, the Real Deal out!**


	27. Regaining Spirit

**Nothing new to say, let's go!**

**For the first time in 2014, This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This is Spirit! Clash of Souls!**

**Chapter 27: Regaining Spirit**

"What is that?!" Ikki screamed in shock. Before he could say another word, the entire island or bird shook again from a massive explosion, the rocking sending Ikki to the ground. Quickly, he placed Queen Bee's medal inside Metabee's medawatch instead. "Metabee, handle Ceresmon for a while, if we want to take on this we need Queen Bee's power."

"Wait, you're leaving me with _her?!_" Metabee screamed in shock before Ceresmon put the squeeze on him again.

"Don't worry, just fire missiles at the ground! Don't shoot her, she'll just deflect them."

"But why the ground?!"

"Just do it alright?!" Ikki fiddled with the watch a bit before he could press it again. A pink flash went off in front of him, and there Queen Bee crashed, keeping her previous momentum as she slammed into the bird's back. He ran over to her panicked, not wanting to look at the looming Digimon at the other side of Ceresmon. He stuck Queen Bee's medal firmly into her back and shut the hatch.

**Queen Bee fully functional. 13% damage dealt before activation.**

"Ikki, why am I covered in dirt?" Queen Bee asked with an annoyed tone, brushing off flecks of soil. She didn't even have time to hear an answer when something in the air just plain didn't feel right. A chill had crept into the air, followed by a massive surge of heat. Without given herself a moment to spare, she launched herself into the air, just as flames erupted from beneath her like a volcano, accompanied by the Ceresmon and her bird's screams. Metabee took that moment to fire his missiles at the ground, Ceresmon's vines releasing him from the shock of the explosion, while Metabee ducked away from her. Ikki, Metabee, Windstorm and Shoutmon all met up away from the enraged Ceresmon. "Guys, where did that fire come from?" Queen Bee asked in worry. It wasn't everyday that something worried her in the first place.

"Looks like it came from that guy," Ikki said with a slight tremble, still visibly shaken. _I have to remember, I'm in the Digital World... It's not the actual Grim Reaper... I think..._

The monster that had now appeared before them stood well over their heads, towering at heights up to twenty feet tall. Instead of an arm, a golden scythe was attached to his right shoulder, while his left arm had sharp claws and a large cannon on his elbow. The digimon was entirely golden with golden skull shaped kneecaps, horns sticking out of his skull-like head, glowing red eyes and a spiked left shoulder pad. His torso was also golden with a skull symbol on it, and his upper legs were grey. It looked like an Egyptian styled Grim Reaper, but there was just something wrong with him, something evil about him...

"Guys! Get out of there!" AeroVeedramon yelled as he flew back down towards them. The reaper-like digimon looked at the newcomer with annoyance. It held up its clawed left hand, flames wrapping themselves around it silently.

"**Bone duster," **it snarled, its voice low and raspy. Flames engulfed AeroVeedramon, the dragon squirming in the air as he tried to put himself out. He spiralled slowly out of the sky, the flames burning even brighter than before until finally he crashed into Ceresmon Mega's back, an explosion sounding as he crashed. A wounded Veemon stepped out of the rising cloud of dust, clutching his left arm which was twisted almost behind his back. The flames seemed to have died down when he degenerated to his rookie stage.

"That guy's Reapermon, a Mega Level Virus type Digimon. Not many people really know this but he's an outlaw Digimon that was banished to live in the Dark Area all his life. I don't know how he got into this world, but his Grim Slasher can definitely take you to the next!"

Reapermon charged for the group, his scythe dragging in the dirt as he ran. Everybody rolled out of the way as his scythe passed mere inches away from their heads. Shoutmon swung his microphone violently at him, but Reapermon simply caught it, tossing Shoutmon into the air before bringing his scythe down on him like a bolt of lightning. Shoutmon just barely put his arms up in time, huge gashes appearing on his arms as he slammed hard into the ground.

"Darn... Metabee, Missile launch! Queen Bee, switch to paralysis poison and use the Toxic Flood!" Metabee fired two missiles at Reapermon while Queen Bee's tail stinger changed colour from yellow to green, poison readying. "I'm not sure if nano-machines will effect digimon but we've gotta try anyway! Go!" The missiles shot out of Metabee's cannons like rockets, jetstreams filling the sky as they flew towards Reapermon. They impacted, knocking him slightly off balance. Queen Been leaped up towards him, her stingers digging deep into his shoulder. Reapermon screamed in pain, spinning around rapidly on his heels, fire circling him like a tornado.

"**Fire Cyclone!" **he screamed, a massive flaming tornado building up around him. The dirt beneath him flew up into the sky, large rocks getting torn to shreds. Queen Bee's body was seen getting flung high into the air, parts blackened and sparking.

**Warning. 50% damage to leg medaparts. 72% damage to right and left arms. 49% damage to head. Poison secretion offline.**

Queen Bee landed next to Ikki, slightly dizzy on her feet. Reapermon finally stopped rotating, saliva dripping from his mouth, his left arm hanging limply by his side.

"It didn't get the rest of him, but it looks like as long as there's a machine part it works," Queen Bee said, her voice actually strained from the stress. "I'm sorry Ikki but I'm not seeing an easy way to beat this guy right now."

"That's because there isn't," a sinister and familiar voice said. Stepping out from behind Reapermon's head was the same mysterious green haired boy, his Zorin faithfully by his side as always. He was clapping his hands painfully slowly, a sadistic smile on his face.

"Will you stop showing up like that?!" Metabee yelled, his fist held up and visibly shaking in rage. "I'm getting tired of running into your tin-pet for a medabot over there again and again!"

"But I'm not," he said. "In fact, I really enjoy our encounters, though I do wish you'd let me win once in a while. Well do you like my newest friend here? I freed him from his prison cell in the dark area just to play with you. You all fell into my little trap all too easily didn't you? All I had to do was test out the Galaxy medal and immediately Ceresmon assumed it was you guys polluting her forest. Of course, it wasn't easy controlling my patience to wait for you to stop right next to her. After you'd knocked her around a bit, it would be easy to destroy you all and this overgrown chicken over here. Of course, not before I could get Samantha on my side..."

"**So it was **_**you **_**who polluted my forest!" **an imposing regal voice boomed, accompanied by the bird's enraged roars. Ceresmon medium had appeared out of the dust of all the explosions, forest fires raging all around her. Her skin had turned ghostly pale, her whole body trembling in silent fury.

"You overheard that last little bit? Well no matter. Your power has already been drained fighting these children. Zorin, syn sword. Now." Zorin sprinted towards her, his claws gleaming in the sunlight. Vines leaped out at him energetically, but Zorin simply shredded them all with ease. He leaped in the air, about to send his claws crashing down on her head. His sword struck. Only to be met with a dull clang. Shoutmon stood in front of Ceresmon, his arm outstretched. His microphone was spinning in the air vibrating, while Zoring was now on the ground, rubbing a dent in his head from where the mic hit him.

"Not this time bub! You've gotta get through me first!"

"Couldn't have said it better!" Chrotojil yelled, DC next to him with Windstorm flying overhead. The kid smiled to himself as they all gathered before him ready to finally fight back.

"Gathering the powers of the weak will not make you any stronger... You'll still be weak in the end."

"Think again!" a voice yelled. "Shadow Sword now!" A yellow flash shot towards Zorin and Reapermon, the flashing striking them again and again repeatedly, the two of them covering their bodies with no luck, scratches appearing all over their arms. The flash slid back away from them as soon as Reapermon made a wildly aimed swing at it. It slid to a halt by Metabee.

"Sumilidon!" Metabee shouted, his gratitude barely hidden in his voice.

"Sorry we're late guys," he said, brandishing his claws, the sun glinting off of them. From the side, nearby Cersmon's wing, Ryuga came up, carried on the back of his wolf-like partner. Next to him was also his GeoGreymon, but now even larger and with a mechanical left arm in the shape of an enormous rifle. On its back carrying it were what seemed like a huge pair of red mechanical wing-like accessories, spines sticking out from his back, flames burning on the ends of each spine. His head was also now armoured with metal instead of bone. In his arms was none other than Koji.

"Sorry I'm late guys, but I'm here now since you clearly can't survive without my help."

"Koji! You actually showed up!" Ikki yelled. LadyDevimon flew up from the other side of the bird carrying Yami in her arms, while Aokshi had somehow managed to jump all the way up onto the birds back, Akkia with him. AeroVeedramon looked like he had recovered. He had to seeing as he had carried Hiro on his back and Samantha with Puttycat in his arms.

"Now, let's get this show on the road!" Leo said finally, already finding himself on Ceresmon mysteriously with Saikachis and Blackbeetle. "Let's end this stupid fight with this kid once and for all. Team Raging Beetle, **LETS ROBATTLE!" **All of the assembled Digimon, medabots and beyblades lurched forward at once, heavy footsteps sounding as they shot towards Reapermon and Zorin. The kid backed away with gritted teeth, pressing buttons on his medawatch frantically. His Tyrellbeetle, Rox, his own Rokusho and a Sanjuuro all appeared at once, clashing with the Medabots without much problem. Reapermon swung his scythe angrily, fire flaring everywhere, blocking the Digimon behind a wall of fire.

"This isn't looking good for me," the odd kid said. "Of course, it's not like I didn't plan for this..." Before anybody could take another step, Ceresmon Mega roared in rage once again, the ground beneath their feet shaking. All around them, more Reapermon started to fly up into the sky, some of them with slight colour differences, but all of them filled with evil intent, a dark, heavy pressure weighing down on everyone there just from their presence. That wasn't all. Behind the Reapermon where what appeared to be more Guardromon, flying on jet thrusters in their sides. Behind them were Femjets, and behind them Noctobats. In between all of these were what looked like thinner versions of AeroVeedramon, all muscular and slimmed down, more humanoid than draconic and a lighter shade of blue.

"Those Veedramon copies are XVeemon," Hiro said. "They're only Champion level, but if it weren't for the Reapermon force, they'd be our biggest threats here. Be careful."

Riding on one of the Reapermon's shoulders was a girl with dark purple hair, a slightly revealing black tanktop and skinny jeans. The same girl who tried skyjacking their plane.

"You!" Akkia yelled, remembering her rival from back then. "What do you want with us? Why do you guys keep trying to mess with us?"

"Well this time _you _were the guys who came after _us _so you can't really preach to us like you're the good guys!"

"You're working with this kid to?" Shoutmon said, his voice becoming dangerously low and threatening.

"That's right kid, we're both Tochikans, and all we're trying to do is create equality, level the playing field a bit. Think about it for a second. In this world, only the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, our leaders are corrupt and dealing with the same injustice we're supposed to be safe from. Humans fight, humans kill, humans do all they can do in their power to create injustice and suffering, polluting and ruining their lands. Betraying eachother, destroying each other, even mistreating the very medabots they created that serve them faithfully without a purpose. If some of you are too young to understand everything else, _that _at least you've seen with your own eyes. Let's not remind you of the Kilobots."

"What does that have to do with destroying my village?!" Shoutmon yelled angrily, his eyes turning deep red. The girl completely ignored him, continuing to speak.

"The world was different when the Tochikans were in charge... At least that's what the boss says, and we want to return it to what it once was. It's far too late to change the world now, we've got to unseem the world from the very roots, remove the filth, raze everything and prepare it for the return of the Tochikans. Only _then _can we finally have peace!"

"If you don't like the world then change it yourself!" Ikki said. "I might only be twelve but even I know that the world isn't right as it is, that's why it's our jobs to try and make a difference, make life better for everybody else, and have fun doing it to!"

"Yeah!" Shoutmon said in agreement. "And besides, no matter what you think, you can't go destroying people's homes either! You don't know how it feels to see all your friends get taken from you!" The girl winced, as if she was physically hit from his words.

"I know well enough what it's like... and I know that I've got to listen to what father says and follow his dreams... All to change this world to a perfect world!" DC released a grim laugh.

"Well that sure sounds boring doesn't it? Following whatever your daddy says like a puppy..."

"Don't you **dare **talk about him like that!" she screamed. Yami and Shoutmon looked towards him with worry. It was just like when he was yelling at Shoutmon.

"Yes I dare! Come on, I bet you don't even really believe whatever you're doing is absolutely right do you? I mean, blowing up half of Medaropolis just to find rare medals? Razing a village to look for... Whatever you were looking for? Forget that I don't care what your reasons are, that's not cool!"

"The ends justify the means, didn't you know that?" she said snidely.

"Well the ends suck! And the means are the method that makes up the ends and... I'm just gonna confuse myself like this! Either way, I won't let you two get away with this!"

"But we will," the boy with the Zorin said now smiling, his hair blowing slightly from the breeze as Ceresmon Mega flapped her wings in exhaustion, each flap feeling like one hundred. "This Digimon here will be ours, and using it we'll be able to revive Ziz with power beyond that of even the Olympos twelve! And from that, none of you will be able to do a thing about it! Talk is cheap, let's end this!" No matter how Ikki looked at it, it didn't seem as if there was any way to get around the situation. They were completely surrounded and hundreds of feet above the ground which didn't look very comforting at all. It was finally it.

"Yami! Hiro! We've got to Mega Digivolve!" The ground rumbled, a bright yellow haze filling the area. Ikki tottered on his feet before collapsing onto his backside.

"W-what's going on here?" Ikki asked in shock. The three tamer's digivices were all out in their hands, glowing bright with energy. LadyDevimon shrunk down to BlackGatomon, then both her and Yami slowly began fusing together, lights flaring everywhere. Sparks flew from the two of them before they finally died down again, Lilithmon left their place. Leo took out two card from his pocket, what looked like a square, shorter, old model orange Digivice on each one.

"**Double-Modify! Warp Digivolution!" **Ryuga screamed, slashing the cards through his Digivice. Greymon and Dorugamon both started glowing bright yellow with power.

"**RizeGreymon,"**

"**DexDoruGreymon," **then together:

"_**Warp Digivolve to..." **_Both of them became engulfed in huge spheres of light, fire crackling all around them. Greymon's sphere broke first. Standing before them now was an enormous giant of a figure, even larger than his RizeGreymon form. Glowing blue claws extended from his arms as if made of molten magma before hardening into a gold colour. His whole body was plated in white armour with red veins flowing through it and his gloves and feet were plated in golden gauntlets and boots. His torso was covered with red armour instead with yellow veins and his red wings had turned golden and were spread wider, flames burning on them. A golden yellow helmet sat on his head, the whites of his eyes blue instead and his irises red, with yellow pupils. His thick tail had a spiked circular hoop on the end with T shaped spokes.

"**ShingeGreymon!"** Dorumon exited the other egg.

Like Greymon, he now looked humanoid instead of beast-like. Standing up to Greymon's shoulder, he was now clad completely in large, regal looking black armour with dark purple veins and details flowing through it. A grim dark purple aura enveloped him and a torn dark blue cape was attached to his back, flowing in the breeze. His red eyes almost seemed to glow with power.

"**ChaosAlphamon!" **Hiro smiled seeing his friends all powering up, then clutched his own Digivice tighter.

"AeroVeedramon, let's show them how it's really done!"

"Right!" he replied energetically. He began glowing gold all over, a sphere covering his whole body. **"AeroVeedramon, Mega Digivolve to..." **The sphere covering him shattered apart with an enormous explosion, even Ceresmon reeling back from the shockwave. From out of it stepped a huge knightlike Digimon with as regal a stance as CAlphamon. His wings had grown even bigger on his back and on his chest was a huge yellow V similar to Shoutmon's red forehead one, thicker than the width of his whole chest. His head still seemed draconic, but now his mouth was covered by a mouthpiece. His deep blue eyes focused with a determination never before seen in Veemon. **"UlforceVeedramon!"**

The medafighters couldn't do anything but gape at it slack-jawed. Nothing could've prepared them mentally for it. They'd already struggled just trying to hide their shock before, but now it was overwhelming. The power coming off of them was physically putting pressure on them like a weight.

"R-right! Now we've got the firepower to!" Leo yelled. "One more time Raging Beetle, **let's robattle!**"

Everyone jumped forward at once, weapons brandished, locked, loaded and ready for battle. The two sides flashed, a huge explosion going off on Ceresmon's back as they collided. Missiles flew everywhere, crashing against lasers which were sliced by swords, and then burnt by flames. Ceresmon Mega roared in anger as she batted away a squad of Femjets. More of them flew in, dropping in heavy crates. The boxes all crashed onto the bird's massive back, splitting apart to reveal multiple Totalizer's all firing lasers in all directions.

"Don't let them scare you! Puttycat, Storm combo!" Puttycat shot from medabot to medabot, flipping over all their heads, redirecting their fire elsewhere while Aokshi shot past them all, slicing medaparts to pieces. A stray missile flew towards Ikki, jet streams billowing out from behind them. Ikki put up his arms, flinching before even taking the hit. "Not this time, **Dragoon Storm attack!**" A huge tornado billowed in front of him, just too far away from him to suck him up. The missile entered, circling around inside it before heading back the way it came, blowing a Femjet to pieces. Three Reapermon swung their scythes aggressively, fire streaming out of them. ShineGreymon stepped in front of them, blocking the flames with the palms of his hands. A huge explosion boomed as soon as they made contact, everyone shielding their eyes as debris flew everywhere. In rage, he extended his claws outwards, slicing the Reapermons to pieces as they flitted away, nothing more than data now. CAlphamon flew over him, punching another one in the chest before Lilithmon flew over even his head, finishing it off with her claws.

"ShineGreymon, there's too many enemies above us, clear the skies," Ryuga said.

"If that's what you want bro, I'll remove them all!" he replied, his voice deeper now and far more focused and serious than it ever was as Agumon or even Greymon. He kicked off of Ceresmon's back angrily, flames forming around his claws. **"Shine Hammer!"** he yelled, slicing through the air, destroying a squardron of Medabots. He turned around, kicking a Reapermon in the chest, then around again just to receive a claw to the face. He winced inwardly as the Reapermon applied pressure, trying to crush his skull.

"As if such a weak attack would ever harm ShineGreymon..." Ryuga said to himself. "CAlphamon, help out ShineGreymon and then join UlforceVeedramon taking out his section of the skies." CAlphamon looked at his blue comrade with concern. He did have the biggest share of enemies to take out compared to the rest of them.

"**Come and meet the divine judgement of a Royal Knight class Digimon!" **UlforceVeedramon cried, V-shaped lasers coming out of his chest. "I will _not _be outdone by Dorumon, even if he's become a Mega level to! I will _not _lose to the likes of you!" A bright iridescent yellow and blue aura began charging itself around his body. He held up his arm, a glowing yellow blade coming out of his gauntlet. He flew towards a Reapermon with powerful and strained beats to his majestic wings, crashing into it with a roar. The aura around him grew even larger than before, multiple jagged streams of energy flying around him in the crude impression of dragons. "I'll remove you all with my **Dragon Impulse **attack!"

"I don't really think he needs help Ryuga," CAlphamon replied as he held his hand up almost exasperatedly, stopping a charred Reapermon that was about to crash into him. He dropped its lifeless body to the ground as it began turning to data. He looked up at ShineGreymon who was still struggling trying to get his face free. CAlphamon held his hand out to his side in a slightly opened fist, a glowing longsword materializing in his hands. He flew towards the Reapermon, ignoring the others who were now gathering around them. He shut his eyes. There was a flash. All the Reapermon screamed together as a flash of light shot between them all ricocheting off of each one, slicing it apart before moving onto the next. The flash shot back down to the ground, materializing into CAlphamon again while the destroyed Reapermon all fell to the ground around him, huge gashes on their chests.

So much action was going on above ground that Ikki barely had any time to give any orders, and before he could even notice damage started racking up on his medawatch.

**Warning, 50% damage to all of Metabee's medaparts**

**Warning, 72% damage to Windstorm's leg medaparts, mobility range decreased**

Metabee was lying on his back, his parts slightly burnt while Windstorm looked like she was barely flying, cutting apart Femjets and Guardromon alike with her sword.

"Metabee, we're at a disadvantage here. Back off for now."

"Metabee doesn't retreat for nobody!" he yelled back angrily, firing bullets into a crowd of Digimon, explosions going off on the Guardromon's engines. A massive red fireball flew past them, incinerating half the Femjets in the sky. The other half all exploded in a line as Lillithmon flew past them, going off in dark purple explosions, ejected metals being flung through the sky. Aokshi stood next to Metabee, another fireball being generated in his hands.

"Metabee, Ikki, I've got a better idea," said. "Don't retreat, but don't fight the small fries either. You're not strong enough to take on multiple Digimon at once, leave them to me and Saikachis and the rest of the tamers."

"In the meantime," Akkia began, picking up where he let off. "Ikki, work together with Koji, DC and Samantha to take out the kid with the Zorin and the girl on the biggest Reapermon. They look like the commanders, so if you beat them their formation will break."

"Why are we attacking them instead?" Ikki asked.

"Cause there are only a few of them so you can handle it."

"What do you mean we can handle it? Are you trying to say that we're the weaksest?" Metabee said. Even Ikki ground his teeth at that prospect.

"We can't let it get to us Metabee, just take out the Zorin guy."

"Exactly," Samantha said, her Beyblade returning to her hand. "We've gotta do it or else nobody else will."

"Metabee don't like this, but I guess it's worth a shot..."

"Good, now listen up," Ikki said, speaking rapidly into his medawatch. "Metabee, Windstorm, demolition mode. We're gonna try demolition fusion again to take out the first Reapermon and Tyrellbeetle. Meanwhile, Shoutmon and Chrome will do a join Soul Crusher and use it as a shield. Samantha, Koji, use Puttycat and Sumilidon's speed to keep their fire attacks off of us. We're clear?"

"Right," they all said back affirmatively.

"Alright, let's do this!" Extra heavy-duty armour transported itself onto Metabee as he crouched down, transforming into demolition mode. Windstorm's parts all began clicking together as well, becoming a large sharpened shuriken. The rest of the gang all put on an extra burst of speed, charging towards the two larger Reapermons.

"Foolishness, do they really hope to challenge our might here and now?" the boy said with a smile. "Finish them Reapermon." Reapermon swung his scythe angrily, flames coming off of them. Sumilidon ran up ahead of everybody, slashing at them with ridiculous speed. An enormous gust of wind came off of his blade, extinguishing the fire as if it were just a candle.

"Now Metabee, do it!" Sumilidon roared.

"Right on, Sumilidon!" Metabee replied. "It's over! **Demo-Fusion!**" He fired, the dull boom of cannon fire drowning out all other sounds as if the gunfire was flooding their ears. The green and purple spiral that was Windstorm flew towards the boy. His Reapermon stepped in the way, using his body as a shield. Faster than anybody could even register it, the single Reapermon was suddenly in two instead of one. The blast continued.

"Zorin, Knight manoeuvre!" the strange kid said. His Zorin's horns began glowing blue as he stepped up in front of him, putting his hands in the air. The blast collided, the ground beneath them tearing to shreds as Zorin struggled just holding up his shield. "Nice try Ikki, but the same move won't work twice on me. Ever since I found out that your Metabee's medaforce surpassed even my Zorin's, we've been working hard on training our spirit and mental fortitude to withstand all spirit based attacks like that one. Even with such a basic technique as this one, you're no match for us!" Zorin roared in anger, clapping his hands together on the blast. Windstorm stopped, steam coming off of her weapon form body. The massive wind and energy that had built up around her had vanished.

"He... caught... Windstorm," Ikki stuttered in shock. Zorin clenched Windstorm tightly, tossing her back towards Metabee before she could even realize what had happened. They crashed into each other, both of them changing back into their normal forms as they did so.

**Warning, Windstorm at 75% damage. Disorientation**

**Warning, Metabee at 87% damage.**

"Shoutmon, Chrome, keep your distance and use ranged attacks!" DC yelled. "We'll show them that us medafighters can do just as much as everybody else!"

"But are you still a medafighter if I'm also partnered with you?" Shoutmon asked.

"Who cares? Just beat them up!" Shoutmon began hurling fire balls at them rapidly while Chrome fired at them rapidly. The girl jumped off of Reapermon's back, somehow landing perfectly on the ground from at least twenty feet up. She held up her hands, her eyes closed in concentration as a dark purple aura built up around her. As if slamming into some kind of force field, all of the attacks stopped in mid-air, exploding on impact with seemingly nothing.

"What in the... is this some kind of telekinesis?" Ikki asked himself in confusion.

"That power would be so awesome if the enemies didn't have it," DC said to himself quietly. "And if it wasn't used for such a stupid purpose..." Shoutmon looked at him questioningly.

"No time for waiting around then, Sumilidon! Use the power within you!"

**Medaforce type 2: Spiral Bolt active**

"Not so fast," the girl said, opening her eyes to reveal cat-like slit pupils. Sumilidon had barely started glowing green when suddenly a dark purple aura surrounded him, suppressing his usual green aura.

**Dimension 4 active. Power level re-stabilized.**

"She stopped the medaforce?" Koji asked in shock. The girl smiled, flicking her hair seemingly without a care, but Ikki spotted the thin bead of sweat on her face.

"That skill didn't look easy to do," he said.

"And I'd say tin-can could probably stop it," Windstorm said. "I don't really wanna know why she can do that, but my guess is through some kind of anti-formation style technology or a well set meda-energy trap. You can counter it..."

"With Metabee's formation cancel!" Ikki concluded. "Alright buddy, formation cancel, now!" multi-coloured light enveloped Metabee as he clenched his fists tighter.

"**It's time, to kiss your bot goodbye!**" With a roar, he pushed both of his hands horizontally out to his sides, a huge blast of energy coming off of him as he did so. The girl clutched her head i pain, her eyes screwed shut as if trying to block out the pain as well as her sight. Metabee's arms went limp by his side in exhaustion, barely able to keep his optics on.

**Dimension 4 disabled, Medaforce attacks are now possible.**

"Alright! Now Windstorm, this might be a good time to check out your type 2 medaforce, Dice attack!" The glow of medaforce enveloped her. Before she could even move, flames enveloped her whole body, the second Reapermon holding his claw out in concentration as she lost her focus, collapsing on the floor in exhaustion.

**All medaparts 97% damage. Nearing critical limits.**

"This isn't going well," Koji said, edging his foot backwards as the approaching enemies got closer. "Hey, wasn't Samantha meant to be helping us as well?"

"Yeah, I'm over here," she said in a cocky tone. "I'm giving all you guys support... Waaay over here..." She stood at the very back of all of them, nowhere in range of the enemies they were facing, hidden behind an oak tree.

"Gee, I can't imagine what we'd do without you..." Ikki said in annoyance. "So what do we do now? It looks like we really _can't _do anything in this world without the others..."

"Don't give up Ikki!" Metabee said, the sounds of machinery whirring back to life as he rebooted. "So what if we don't become titans when we're mad? We can still make a difference! We haven't come all this way just to go down in a place like this!"

"Metabee's right," Windstorm said. "I know you feel powerless, but you didn't get all the way here with power alone. We can still pull through somehow, but you won't even have a chance if you give up!"

"That's right Ikki," Koji said. "I've been with you since the very start, I know you're made of tougher stuff than these guys!"

"Yeah, you've just gotta do the impossible you know!" DC yelled.

_Everyone believes so much in me, _Ikki thought to himself. _They all think that I'm the one who can pull them through to victory, even if I don't think so myself. Well, if I can't believe in myself, then I'll believe in all of them, all of them who believe in me!_

"Alright then, Metabee, try and use the medaforce one more time."

"Alright Ikkster, I trust you on this one!" The sky darkened, clouds drawing in ominously as Metabee's eyes flashed green dangerously

**Medaforce type 2: Damge Ball active**

"Alright Metabee, this attack does more damage depending on how badly damaged you are. Right now it's more than enough power to take these guys out!" Multi-coloured lights flared brightly from Metabee, the light practically blinding everybody there. Metabee held his hands in front of him as what looked like an odd luminescent water balloon began to form between his hands.

"Eat this! **Medaforce!**" He shoved the water balloon violently towards them, the object travelling slowly, almost gently through the air.

"A _water balloon?_" the girl guffawed._ "_Is that the best you can do? This Reapermon will blast it away with a sneeze! I don't even need to..." The balloon exploded, everyone nearby it falling back like bowling pins, nobody really sure what had just hit them. Ceresmon roared in pain, the ground beneath their feet shaking.

"Alright, we're nearly finished with this!" DC yelled, seeing their enemy finally nearing their limits. "Chrotojil, blast them to pieces! Shoutmon, use a full power Soul Crusher and finish them!" Chrotojil fired his signature Gunmetal Barrage as expected, holding back the KWG type medabots with ease, but Shoutmon hesitated, listening intently to Ceresmon's screams. Mingled in with the beast's cries of pain were, now quite faint, sobs of distress.

"Wait, DC, something's wrong. All of this fighting is hurting Ceresmon. We can't use flashy moves like this."

"If we _don't _use flashy moves we're all gonna lose!" he replied angrily, his eyes burning with anger, all of it directed towards the enemies before them. "She's a Mega level, she'll be okay."

"No, she seems really hurt," Shoutmon replied. "What's the matter? Why are you getting so angry?"

"DC, Shoutmon's right," Chrome said. "You haven't been acting like yourself since we started..." DC pretended not to hear them.

"If we don't stop these guys now, who knows how many more people are gonna be hurt? I'm not gonna let my weakness get in the way again! So come on guys, blast them now or I'm doing it myself!" Even Chrome paused for a few seconds before aiming his guns at Zorin again, peering at his medafighter curiously. Shoutmon gritted his teeth, holding his mic loosely in his uncertainty. He scanned the burning forest for any sign of Ceresmon Medium. His eye rested on her injured form further away to his right. She was lying on her side, barely moving with flames surrounding her. Roots were coming out of her arms, digging into the ground as if trying to absorb nutrients. Everything about her just didn't seem right. Shoutmon felt a pang of sorrow prick his chest painfully as he stared at her.

"Sorry DC, but I'm not gonna do anything else to Ceresmon," he said. "I'm gonna get her to safety first. I'm counting on you guys to do the rest!" DC looked away from him in annoyance.

"Fine whatever, I'll just have to do this with my own power anyway," DC said.

"Don't do anything rash!" Shoutmon shouted back at him as he ran towards Ceresmon's smaller form. Ikki didn't seem to be paying any attention to this exchange, instead he was busy giving commands to all of his medabots at once as they held of the KWG type medabots.

"Queen Bee, rapid kicks to the Zorin! Windstorm, Metabee, double team that Tyrellbeetle!"

"Sumilidon, you face off against Rox with your Shadow Sword!"

"Puttycat, make sure that Sanjuuro doesn't go anywhere!" The KWG typed were all practically running circles around everyone but Queen Bee and Sumilidon who were keeping up with their pace easily. Zorin's claws clashed against Queen Bee's stingers, neither willing to budge.

"Queen Bee, grab that Zorin's arms and immobilize him. Gather all of the KWG typed together!" Queen Bee clutched Zorin's left arm, and with her free arm stabbed him with paralyzing poison. Before he could even try and counter attack he tossed him to the floor. Everyone else all pushed their foes to the centre.

"Now's your chance! Everybody, missiles!" Metabee and Chrome both fired missiles at them, dust rising as they exploded on impact.

"Hah! Who did he think he was messing with the best robattler in the world?" Ikki said confidently.

"News flash, you're not the best Ikki, you're not even second in Japan!" Samantha said.

"Whatever, we still managed to win..."

"Think again Tenryou," the boy said, walking out of the dust from the explosion, unscratched except for his clothes being slightly torn. "The party is only just beginning. You managed to survive. Congratulations... On defeating wave one."

"**What?!**" they all exclaimed at once. They didn't even need to try and accuse him of bluffing, already they could see swarms of Digimon coming in the distance, what looked like twice the amount they had just fought.

"Sorry guys, but I've got nothing this time," Ikki said. Just when he'd shut his eyes and prepared for the worst, a light shone high above his head. A powerful, almost angelic female voice spoke.

"_**Come, Tenryou, don't worry. I'm here... to save you..."**_


	28. The Tochikans Legacy

**Can't stop now, my fingers of fury won't let me! I've always questioned how some fan fiction writers can have dozens of stories to write at the same time, I struggle just shifting my attention between two! The sad thing is, both of them are just as fun to write so I can't just decide to put one on hold and focus on one... Anyway:**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**This is, ****the true blue real deal, ****SPIIIRRIIITT!**

**I don't own Medabots, Digimon, Beyblade or Monster Rancher. The Fleria mentioned here is based off of Fleria from Monster Rancher 3, though her current abilities and persona are my own. The Spiral Medal Concept is mine and stuff…Yeah…**

**Chapter 28: The Tochikan's legacy (Lets Xros Our Hearts!)**

"_**Come, Tenryou, don't worry. I'm here... to save you..."**_

Ikki blinked his eyes and looked around him. The voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once.

"Who is this? What're you gonna do?"

"_**Don't worry, you'll see." **_A small point of light started to generate in front of Ikki, growing and spreading, enveloping the whole area. The light blinded them, burning at the back of their eyes. Ikki covered his eyes, looking around him for Metabee. Then, the world went black.

. . .

"Metabee, where are you? _Metabee!_" Ikki screamed, feeling around in the dark, still afraid to open his eyes.

"I'm right here bro," he said from behind him. "Chill out, the light's gone."

"Huh?" Ikki opened his eyes. They were in some sort of garden, not Ceresmon's back, he knew that much because Ceresmon was to his right, the huge beast heaving in exhaustion while it's smaller Medium sat by its side, burns on her arms. "Where are we? Where is everyone else?"

"_**Don't worry, your friends are all safe," **_the same unknown voice said.

"Well it would be nice if I could see them," Ikki said in annoyance.

"Don't worry, we're all right here," Akkia said as she stepped out from behind Ceresmon along with everybody else. Just then, Ikki remembered that Koji was with them. He ran forward to greet him.

"Koji! How did you get into the Digital World without Hiro?" Ikki asked.

"Well Tenryou, I _did _come with a little girl who managed to find a portal where you first met Ryuga, but we got separated when we arrived here. I think it was the same girl who was in DC's robattle team.

"What?!" DC yelled out in surprise. "Natalie's here?! Oh great, and here I'm supposed to be looking after her and she's following me into the Digital World… Why couldn't she be a good little girl and stay with Aki?"

"Because in all honesty, Dr Aki doesn't really look like the best choice for a babysitter anyway," Samantha pointed out. The group laughed for a while.

"_Enjoying yourselves?" _the voice said behind them. They all turned around, surprised that it was now so close without anybody noticing. Dorumon stood in front of them all protectively, ashamed that he hadn't heard there guests footsteps. What looked like some kind of female knight or Crusader stood before them. She was wearing pale green gauntlets and grieves, her left forearm covered with a shield of some kind and a green helmet that covered the upper half of her face. A golden lion pattern was on the shield and a gold cross on her skirt-like metal grieves. Six golden metallic wings were sprouting from her back, with two regular white feathered wings below them. Her helmet also had two golden wings on it. She held a golden lance in her right hand that just screamed power and authority, and her already towering height was increased even more by her green high heels.

"There's Digimon with high heels?" Shoutmon asked bluntly. Both DC and Hiro punched him on the back of the head violently.

"Of all the questions you can ask an angelic Digimon," Hiro began.

"You ask her something as dumb as _that_?!" DC finished.

"But it's a good question!"

"**No its not!" **The angel Digimon laughed at their antics.

"No, his question is well founded, I am not actually the Digimon known as Ophanimon," she said. "I just borrowed some of her power to help you all escape.

"I don't understand," Ryuga said. "You _look _like an Ophanimon, you have the power of an Ophanimon, so how can you _not _be an Ophanimon?" The angel before them clasped her hands together. Swirling golden light wrapped itself around her as if it were some sort of holy energy and not data. It completely covered her before dispersing into the air. Her armour was now gone, instead replaced with a long green gown that seemed to flow like liquid. Her helmet was gone as well, revealing a pair of iridescent captivating green eyes and flowing waist length hair. Her skin was ghostly pale, and yet it was radiant, glowing. Literally glowing, an odd golden aura around her, as if her blood was flowing with power. A pair of disk shaped earrings hung in her ears with an odd lizard design on them and an M in the centre. Everything about her said that she should've been an incredibly beautiful woman, with the power to mesmerize any she met, but it seemed the beauty was lost somehow. Looking into her eyes, it was like there was something missing from her eyes, like a something important in her life had been taken from her at some point, something irreplaceable and inconceivable. Whatever it was, she had done her grieving long ago, for there she stood before them, powerful even without her strange transformation. In the hand that used to hold the lance there was instead a small Digivice, similar in basic shape and design to Hiro's, but more square shaped than rounded.

"You… turned into a digimon?" Ikki asked in shock, still unable to understand it. She nodded her head, holding up her Digivice.

"That thing's a D-Tector," Hiro said, recognising the design. "It's a super-rare type of Digivice, even rarer than a Darkness Loader. Unlike the other Digivices that pair you with a partner digimon, this Digivice lets you transform yourself into a digimon yourself. But I thought it was only limited to the ten spirits, it shouldn't be possible to get many other digimon as your partner!"

"Believe me, I have lived a far longer life than you all realise," she said. "I know how to do things that you cannot even fathom." Her voice was melodic and hypnotising, a very faint echo heard behind every word she said as if they were laced with magic power. Instantly Ikki knew that she could either make a very powerful ally, or an even more formidable foe than the whole Legend Army.

"So if you're so powerful, why would you bother to save us of all people?" Ryuga asked. "I don't think that you're a digimon so it can't be to protect this world can it?"

"You're correct in that I am no digimon," she said softly. She shut her eyes as a memory graced her mind. "I was once of mortal flesh and blood much like you are now. In fact…"

"You're a Tochikan," Samantha stated matter-of-factly.

"**Heh?! A Tochikan?!" **everyone screamed in shock.

"Don't be so alarmed!" the woman said. "Yes, it is true that I am a Tochikan, as I have always been, a pure-blooded Tochikan at that to. However, I am different to Samantha. She has a mortal body and all of the weaknesses of the flesh, but I on the other hand transcended my mortal body in order to protect the world from the threat that Suzaku warned me of."

"Suzaku?" Ikki asked in confusion. The woman blinked in surprise.

"You've never heard of Suzaku? The Lord of all Phoenixes?"

"I've heard of some bird called Ziz," DC offered. "The Lord over all birds in the land-"

"_**No! Ziz and Suzaku aren't related in the slightest!" **_she screamed suddenly, her voice booming so loud it was likely a decibel short of a grenade. She stopped abruptly, trying to reign in her sudden flash of anger while everyone simply stared in stunned fear. All of the plants that weren't connected to Ceresmon began quivering as if from fear, the grass slowly turning a dying brown. "Forgive my outburst… I guess it can't be helped that the Legends of my time have faded away into non-existence… I can assure you though, Ziz is no Lord over anything, the Ziz is a destructive beast that must be stopped before it is too late…"

"Okay, so tell us exactly what's going on," Ikki said, poking his ears with his finger to check if they were still intact.

"Yeah, we've practically been walking in half blind till now," Yami added. "Who's Ziz and Suzaku? And what link do they have between you and the Legend Army?" The woman took a deep breath as she tried to calm her nerves, then exhaled, the flowers reviving as if a breath of life-giving air had just been released.

"I shall try and tell you all that I know," she said. "That was among one of my purposes for bringing you all here as well, along with trying to save your lives. Please, take a seat." Large wooden chairs materialised behind them out of thin air. Everyone warily took a seat, still seeming slightly cautious. "First, I am Fleria, among the last remaining pure Tochikans like Samantha. While I was still on the earth, I too was a Monster Breeder much like all of you are Tamers and Medafighters, and I was one of the best to. Back then, my partner and I, together with our shared monster defeated an evil threat known as 'The End of Day and Night'. That Monster was called Ziz." She paused for effect as everyone began listening more intently to her background story. "Ziz possessed the powers of both darkness and light, and its goal was to eradicate all imperfections, to kill that which it deemed evil, which it claimed was the humans and Tochikans, and the Monsters that followed him. It was a long and hard battle, but in the end we were able to destroy Ziz, or so we thought. We merely destroyed its flesh and blood form, but its spirit lives on, and it has been regenerating and amassing power as we speak. This is where the Legend Army enters the story.

"They have a deeper goal, a hidden agenda that only the highest ranking members know about."

"That explains why I knew absolutely nothing," Queen Bee said grumpily. Tochikan glared at her, waiting to continue.

"While the members you've all met believe they are trying to restore others like themselves, other Tochikans, their leaders believe only in selfish goals. Their leader wants to revive Ziz."

"Hey, that's not too bad is it?" DC said. "Back when you first fought Ziz you were on your own but you won. We've practically got a miniature army here, taking it on will be a piece of cake!" Fleria shook her head sadly.

"No, it's _not _that simple. Ziz in my time was far weaker than he will be if he's revived after thousands of years of rest. If he were to revive at full strength, he may have powers by far exceeding that of a Galaxy Medal." DC's face darkened, his expression becoming more sombre for a moment before the jovial look in his eyes returned.

"That can't be good…"

"Huh? What's the Galaxy Medal?" Ikki asked in confusion.

"The Galaxy Medal," Akkia began. "Was a rare medal of ridiculous amounts of power, that if fully evolved is said to be able to level an entire galaxy with its strongest Medaforce attack."

"I robattled someone with one before," DC said. "Back when I had more fire in my soul than even you Ikki. Practically shed five years from my life and made Chrome's defect even _worse_. Not to mention that people seriously died against it, some people more important than others…" Shoutmon looked at him questioningly while Chrome pat him on the back sympathetically. "Ah this is no time to get Melodramatic! Hey, Fleria, I get it, this thing is deadly, and it'll probably kill us all if it wakes up. Personally, I would rather _not _fight another Intergalactic threat, so how can we stop it from waking up?"

"You have to destroy enough of Ziz's remaining fragments before it can wake up," she said. "When Ziz died, it split its soul between numerous Universes in order to observe humans and gather the strength they were developing. Its strongest fragments became reborn here in the Digital World as Virus type Digimon representing Legendary Heroes of the past, and one of the fragments was in the real world as a Drill medal, the youngest evolution of the Galaxy Medal. If you can destroy six of the seven fragments at the very least, and stop the leader of the Legend Army from amassing the necessary power needed to awaken Ziz, it may be possible to bring about its return. Remember, he believes that he can control Ziz's power, so he is willing to do everything he can to keep the fragments alive, before its time to dispose of them."

"That's low, sacrificing your associates to gain more power," Koji said between his teeth. "However, you still haven't answered Ryuga's question. Why save us? Why task us to do this when you yourself could probably defeat the Legend Army yourself?" Fleria's eyes darkened at his words.

"It is because I no longer have the power to battle for extended periods of time anymore…" Fleria held up her hands to her face. They flickered briefly, data streams floating around them. "My power is immense, but I cannot hold my form for much more than thirty minutes if I fight at full power. It becomes even less if I'm not in a lower density Universe such as the Digital or Spirit realm. I am no longer the hero I once was. You however, are the new heroes. I have seen your potential ever since your birth into this world, and I know that as of now, you are the only heroes who can even match the enemy. I have been trying to aid your mission for some time now from behind the scenes, and already you are closer to the end goal than you think. Still though, you don't possess the power needed to win. Thus why I saved you earlier from your demise. It is not your time to fall here."

"So the threat is so great that we must now rely on humans," Ceresmon said, standing back up again.

"Oi, are you gonna be alright?" Shoutmon asked. "You got hit pretty bad back there."

"This is nothing," she said, her voice rasping. "Kind Lady, if what you say is true, then the entire Digital World is in grave danger. And not just the Digital World, but all other worlds with it. If so, I shall attempt to arouse the other members of the Olympos XII of the impending danger. I can probably convince at least one of them to take action after hearing of this danger but the rest all prefer to stay out of major conflicts unless absolutely necessary." Fleria nodded her head gratefully.

"Now I know the danger is great and the pressure is immense, and so I shall attempt to help you, if only a little bit." Fleria beckoned Samantha to come closer. "Come, hold out your Beyblade." Samantha rummaged around in her pocket and held out Dragoon. The number of scratches on it had more than doubled since its last inspection. Fleria held her hand over it, her palm shimmering gently, vibrating with power, singing with energy. The blade reacted back, a deep humming voice coming from the blade. Fleria smiled. "It seems you were already awakening this blade all along weren't you? No matter, I shall accelerate its growth." A cool blue flame erupted from the blade, the shock almost causing Samantha to drop it. Blue light flashed on the face in the centre, and then the humming stopped. An image of a blue dragon with long white claws appeared on the chip, a long sinuous body standing tall. The glowing stopped as Samantha slowly pulled the blade back for closer inspection. "I've awoken Dragoon from within the blade. Initially this was like any ordinary Beyblade, lifeless and without a soul. Due to its exposure to you and your friends however, it appeared to have been developing some form of spirit. We don't have much time, so I accelerated its growth. Now you'll be able to unleash his true power. Now there isn't much more time, you have to stop the Legend Army from recruiting the other Fragments into their army!"

"What Digimon will the Fragments be?" Hiro asked now that he'd processed all the information he needed.

"Their energy signatures are currently hidden from me, but I know that you will have to deal with Apocalydramon. Now go, heroes, go quickly and save the world!" Fleria waved her hand in the air. A large doorway extended out of the ground, rocks, moss and vines falling off of the oak doors. Ikki turned the brass handle cautiously and opened the door. He looked inside. It was the clearing they had stopped at before, their enemies miles away from them now. "The Legend Army's headquarters will be east from your current position. Go quickly before they discover where you are! I shall teleport Ceresmon there manually so don't worry, go!" The group all filed through the door slowly, being hurried out by Fleria before they could ask any more questions. Shoutmon looked back at Ceresmon with worry before shrugging his shoulders and stepping forward. Fleria put her hand on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"Hey, what gives?" he snarled, ignoring the fact that Fleria was practically a Goddess.

"Isn't it time that you wake up already, old friend?" she asked. Shoutmon cocked his head to the side with a puzzled look on his face. She touched the top of his V gently. A sharp burning pain spread through his head where he touched, travelling through his body until it stopped at his heart. Shoutmon jumped backwards, his mic instantly appearing in his hands.

"What're you doing to me?!" he screamed in shock.

"Relax, I just woke up some power within you as well." Shoutmon looked at his burning chest. His eyes widened in surprise. A black hazard symbol had been placed there, as if indicating toxic waste.

"A hazard symbol?" he asked in surprise. "Can't only Virus type Digimon get this?"

"Normally that is true, but you still possess an incredibly dangerous substance within you," she said. "Let's just hope when it presents itself, that DC and Chrome know what to do with it…" Shoutmon stared at her with a confused expression before resigning himself to being in the dark about the situation. He sauntered through the door to meet the others. He looked back one more time just to find the door wasn't even there anymore, gone without a trace.

"Whatever… Hey DC! You feel like arm-wrestling for that last chocolate bar?" Nobody replied, they were all just staring up at the dark cloud-covered sky. "DC? What's wrong?" Shoutmon followed their gazes, and then he realized immediately what was wrong.

**Giganko Deluxe Model: Legend Army**

**Medafighter: Legend Army**

**Specialty: Powerful Missiles**

**Medal Type: Helix Medal**

**Signature: Giga Death-Break**

"That is the BIGGEST Medabot I've ever seen!" Ikki screamed. It was just like any Mega-Emperor, only this one was at least twenty times larger. It was even larger than Ceresmon, and none of the Medabots back at the first attack could even compare to this one in terms of sheer size and firepower. Half of the forest had been scoured as it marched on, looking for them ever since their initial escape. "Guys, if that guys anything like I remember him, this won't be as easy as we might like to think!"

"I think it will be," Yami said. "Don't forget, we have Digimon, not Medabots. We have the advantage when it comes to sheer firepower."

"This won't work out the way you think it will," DC said. "Check out the specs again. That guy has a Helix medal, the first evolution of a Galaxy Medal. He's way stronger than any Medabot, and I'm pretty sure not even a Digimon can do the job." Clearly none of the Tamers had listened to him but Hiro, all of the Digimon flashing brightly as they Digivolved right up to Ultimate level with the exception of Agumon. Agumon and Ryuga looked each other in the eyes, and nodded. Ryuga held up his Digivice, him and Agumon floating towards each other.

"**Agumon, Bio-Merge to…" **They fused together, Agumon skipping all of his evolutionary stages as he shot all the way up to ShineGreymon. Flames burst out of his back wildly, forming burning wings of fire. The red highlights on his body turned darker crimson. He held up his right hand, flames shooting out of it to form a blade made entirely of flames, a fire shield joining his other hand. His golden gauntlets also turned dark red as did his helmet.

"**ShineGreymon, Burst Mode!"**

All of the Digimon shot into the air, firing a stream of lasers and flames at Giganko. The attacks exploded on impact, the shockwave from the explosion causing the trees to ripple from the power. Dust clouds expanded like swelling balloons of air as each attack hit, then a wave of dark power from LadyDevimon that enveloped everything in sight. The dust cleared, revealing Giganko, just as he'd been left, and possibly very irritated.

"What the? We didn't even scratch it!" ShineGreymon yelled in shock.

_Calm down Agumon, _Leo said from somewhere deep within him. _If we concentrate all of our power into the sword…_

"Right then," they started to say, both of their voices speaking together. They combined both the sword and the shield together, the flames from both lighting up even more than ever before. **"Corona Blaze Sword!" **they screamed, swinging the huge great sword vertically. The blow crashed into Giganko, a large burning cut going all the way through his armour. Giganko roared in rage as the flames died down again, his side exploding violently from the open injury. He turned around, ignoring the damage and pointed all of his guns at ShineGreymon. Missiles fired, streaking through the sky, seeking out the enemy. ShineGreymon put up his shield just in time, the blast knocking him all the way back to the ground. He crashed into the dirt next to the humans on the ground, splitting up back into two people.

"Darn it… He's not too powerful as he is now," he said between his teeth. "But his armour is ridiculously thick, and we don't have the power to take much more than two or three hits at a time after that last battle."

"Then don't you worry about a thing!" Samantha said, holding up her medawatch. "We'll deal with this for you." She took out Dragoon with her other hand. "Sorry buddy, but this looks a bit too big for you right now… Alright Ikki, give us some orders!"

"Right!" he confirmed. "Leo, Akkia, Samantha, you guys go to the right with Queen Bee to distract him. Koji, DC, Hiro, you guys go left and try and flank him from there with Windstorm. The Tamers will provide air support while I stay in the centre with two high-power Medabots to prepare super attacks. Chrome, Blackbeetle, you guys will do. Alright team, break!" Everybody split apart to do their designated tasks, firing bullets, missiles and lasers aggressively in the process, Akkia Sumilidon and Peppercat leaping and jumping on Giganko, cutting at the armour to no avail. Giganko took one heavy step forward, firing missiles wildly everywhere as he did so.

"Not so fast punk," DC shouted. "Shoutmon, use your Soul Crusher on this guy, now!" Shoutmon jumped in the air, screaming into his microphone angrily. The shockwave hit Giganko directly, the frequencies causing the metal to slowly start to tear. Giganko roared, firing yet even more missiles angrily. Everybody jumped to the side just before impact, except for DC and Shoutmon. The pair went flying, crashing into a tree, dazed from the blast.

"Are you okay guys?" Yami asked in worry. DC coughed, globules of blood splattering the floor.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he said. "Ikki, I'm activating Chrome's Gunmetal Barrage." Giganko took another heavy step closer to Ikki.

"Yeah, do it!" Metabee began glowing Medaforce green along with Blackbeetle, while Chrome's cannons began rotating.

"**Dude… I rock! It's time, to kiss your bot goodbye!" **In sequence, Blackbeetle, Chrome, and Metabee said;

"**Me,**"

"**Da,"**

"**Force!" **The attacks flew out, hail of missiles and bullets from Chrome and Blackbeetle merging with Metabee's Medaforce attack. The blow struck him directly in the chest, Giganko roaring in pain as his armour tore itself to pieces, flying off of him piece by piece. The attacks dissolved in the air, Giganko still roaring in pain as his outer armour fell to pieces… Just to reveal a second layer, this one now with legs instead of treads. The three Medabots fell down exhausted, no energy left to deal with the battle anymore.

"No way… We're a lot stronger now than last time," Ikki said to himself. "Three Medaforce attacks should've worked this time around!"

"No!" DC screamed, punching the ground violently. Yami, Koji and Hiro all stopped to stare at him. He was still on the ground, his fist clenched and clutching some torn up grass. "We were so close! Why do I always stop short? Why do I always never have enough power to do win when I really need to?" DC yelled.

"Yo, bro, are you alright?" Shoutmon asked.

"No, I'm _not _alright!" he yelled. "It's not even a problem of Tamers being stronger than Medafighters this time, I can never pull through myself! If I had a strong enough heart to do the impossible, Chrome would be able to use the Medaforce. If I was intelligent enough, I could've hardwired him with an attack even greater than the Gunmetal Barrage, and we could've won! If I'd been fast enough back in Medaropolis, I might've made it in time to save Samantha's Peppercat, and then we'd have even _more _power on our side! My team might have won if I'd let Natalie in, and if I'd won my match. If I hadn't gotten… Gotten _scared _back then, against the Galaxy Medal, she'd still be alive…" Everyone who wasn't being blasted at stopped what they were doing.

"Guys, stay at your posts!" Ikki shouted. "We can't break formation now, leave this to the team with DC and any nearby tamers." Ikki wanted to go back to help him to, but they had to keep going. He looked at DC with a mixture of shock and sympathy. _He must've been keeping all of those feelings to himself until now, _he thought to himself. _We never once stopped to think if he was really alright because he always seemed so happy all the time. We should've noticed it from his violent temper recently… I can't help but feel like this is somehow my fault…_

"C'mon Ikkster! We've gotta do this!" Metabee screamed through his medawatch.

"Yeah Ikki, robattles don't win themselves!" Windstorm added.

"R-right!" He turned on his heel and chased after Metabee. DC was still practically on the floor, tears streaming down his face.

_What're you doing man? _He thought to himself. _This is no time to have a mental breakdown! And of all the times, why now?!_

"Oi, DC, what's wrong?" Shoutmon asked. "Tell me you were joking about all of that right?" DC tried wiping away the tears, but just ended up smudging his face with more grime from his jacket sleeve.

"Sorry Shoutmon, but I did… I'm not the strongest of Medafighters, I know that, but I'm not even a decent Tamer. In the past, I wasn't always the hyperactive kid you know. When I was still young, there was a guy who tried to take over the world using a Galaxy Medal… Where I lived there weren't that many Medafighters, and I didn't even know what a Tamer was, so I only had a few Medafighter friends who could help me stop it. I teamed up with a female Medafighter to try and take him down, but when it came to the final battle, I got so scared… I couldn't protect anyone at all… Let alone myself… I was a total failure, as a Medafighter and as a friend, and because of that she…"

"**That's the dumbest story I've ever heard!**" Shoutmon yelled, punching him on the back of the head. Everybody's jaw dropped in shock.

"You… you idiot!" Koji screamed. "DC's making the effort to actually speak about his emotions for once and you call his story stupid!"

"That's because it is!" Shoutmon yelled.

"**Take that back!**" DC yelled immediately, getting back to his feet.

"I won't! Something bad happened because you were weak right? So what're you doing crying about it now? Take those feelings of regret and turn it into passion!"

"It's not that simple!" DC screamed back. "It's easy for you, you just sing and stuff burns! I don't have any power on my own!"

"Because you're weak! So get strong! Simple maths!"

"Stop calling me weak!" DC threw a punch at him. This time it was Shoutmon's turn to counter, grabbing the fist and hurling him to the ground.

"Idiot! You're acting hasty because you're trying to prove to everybody that you're not useless aren't you? We don't need any proving! You're my awesome General that's gonna save the Digital World! You don't have to act dumb and endanger everybody for that! You should act dumb and fight because you already _know _that you're worth more than that!"

"Then why? Why can't I robattle as well as Ikki can? Why can't I also make you Digivolve! If I really am a powerful General then I order you to Digivolve and beat that guy!" Shoutmon hesitated slightly, not sure what to say. "Exactly! I can't even make _you _stronger!"

"You already _have _made me stronger! I can fight better now, but only when you're not drowning yourself in self-pity you… you… you super idiot!"

"I'm the super idiot? Well you're the **mega idiot!**"

"Well then, you're the…" The two of them kept arguing, ignoring the Mega Laser that flew right past them. Yami looked at Chrome with concern.

"Aren't you going to stop those two?"

"No… There's no need," he said. "It looks like DC's already recovered. It's only temporary, but Shoutmon's done it. It looks like this might be his way of paying him back when he woke Shoutmon up in his time of need. Don't worry about it, I'll talk to him later, I'm his partner. But for now…" DC adjusted the cap on his head again, the smile on his face once again, though more grim and determined than usual.

"Well then buddy, I'll prove to you I'm no idiot! This time, I won't fail, I'll do this for _my _sake now! I've got nothing to prove to my friends, they already _know _that I'm awesome! And if I can't believe in myself right now, I'll believe in you and Chrome, because I know that you two believe in me! **Let's go guys! Team Raging Beetle is on the move!**" Shoutmon clutched his chest tightly, his hazard symbol glowing bright yellow. The yellow light came out of his chest and floated over to DC. DC stared at the glowing orb with wide eyes. He cupped his hands as the orb rested in his palms. The light died down slowly. A grey looking iPod-like device was revealed. It was box-shaped and divided into two sections, the upper larger section had a blue screen, a white grill above that screen with a crack where it could slide open. The smaller bottom section had a round white button surrounded by a dial and two black buttons above it. As soon as it landed in his hand the whole device started to turn bright yellow, the yellow of Freedom. The Hazard Symbol pattern spread all along the back of the device like a tattoo.

"What's… this?"

"DC, do you know what you have?" Hiro screamed. "That's a Xros Loader! An uncorrupted Darkness Loader! Only people with Xros Codes can use a true Xros Loader, and you've got one!"

"So… It's a Digivice?"

"Yes!" DC smiled as he clutched his new Digivice.

"That's all I needed to know!" he yelled, and just in time to as all of the airborne Digimon fell to the ground, degenerated back to their basic forms.

"Sorry Ryuga, I'm all out of power..." Dorumon said. LadyDevimon fell from the skies as well, degenerating to Salamon. Yami stretched out her arms, catching the falling digimon in her arms.

"I'll get him next time Yami," she said before she shut her eyes.

"Guys, I'm out of this battle. It's all up to you guys!" Ikki nodded his head.

"Ryuga, can your Digimon still fight?"

"Agumon's down for the count," he said. "But Dorumon can probably just Digivolve up to Champion level."

"Chrome's barely taken any damage!" DC yelled, his eyes lighting up as a plan formed in his and Ikki's minds together.

"Veemon can't go Mega since he overdid it last time," Hiro said, glaring at his partner. "But we can go AeroVeedramon."

"And I'm still alive and ticking!" Windstorm yelled enthusiastically. "And this tin-can over here to."

"Great!" Ikki yelled. "That's all I needed to know! DC, can you…"

"Oh no, don't tell me you're gonna…" Hiro began.

"Fuse them together? I was born for this!" DC yelled. A yellow aura began to cover DC's whole body, energy radiating off of him in huge quantities. His Xros Loader vibrated with power, the grill opening up to reveal a yellow V beneath it. He pushed the central button on it instinctively, already knowing how to use it as he selected Shoutmon as the base of the fusion. The same started happening to Ryuga, Dorumon, Hiro and Veemon.

"Are you _sure _about this?" Hiro asked, readying his Digivice since he already knew the answer.

"Of course! We don't have much of a choice!" DC yelled. Ryuga smiled to himself as he slashed a card through his Digivice.

"**Dorumon Digivolve to…**" Dorumon hovered in the air, his body getting plated in machinery, his wings growing larger on his back and armoured. **"DexDorumon!"**

"**Veemon Digivolve to…" **Veemon's muscles grew larger, his arms developing claws, his bone structure becoming more dinosaur-like as he became Veedramon, then larger still as his chest became armour plated, red wings sprouting from his back. **"AeroVeedramon!"**

"**Let's do this!**" he yelled. **"Shoutmon, Chrotojil, DeathXDorumon, Windstorm, AeroVeedramon, Metal Beetle, ****DIGIXROS!****" **Shoutmon, Chrome and DexDorumon all shot into the air, Shoutmon covered in a red aura, Chrome in a yellow one, and DexDorumon in a silver one. They clashed in the centre, a burning red X slashing through the join point as they did.

"**DIGIXROS!" **all of the involved Digimon yelled together. A white ball of light hovered in the air in front of them all, forcing everybody to squint to see it clearly. Even Giganko stepped back warily. Chrome's fist, now three times as large shot out of the ball, followed by another fist, and then what looked like Dorumon's clawed, machine-like leg, the bone structure now rearranged to be bi-pedal, swirls of dark energy coming out of holes in them as the second leg shot out. Shoutmon's head was visible over Chrome's torso before embedding itself in Chrome's chest on top of a white square block, jutting out a few centimetres from his body with only the red V showing. A larger version of Chrome's head, missiles and all, appeared on his left shoulder like a shoulder pad while a larger version of DexDorumon's head appeared on the right shoulder, his eyes covered by a metal plate. Where Chrome's head used to be on his body instead appeared a white head covered by a helmet and mask, roughly stylized after a Samurai's helmet but with three horns coming from it and jaws. A pair of red eyes opened in them, burning with passion.

"**DexShoutmon, X3!" **the new Digimon/Medabot hybrid yelled in Shoutmon's voice.

"It's not over yet!" Windstorm yelled, enveloped in a dark purple aura. Her medaparts folded up into her Demolition blade mode and shot towards X3. X3 extended his hand, catching Windstorm easily, a hole carving out of the centre, the carved out medaparts attaching to his right arm like a gauntlet while a handle appeared in the gap in Windstorm. Windstorm's blades extended some more, getting even larger than should've been possible.

"Don't forget me!" AeroVeedramon roared with a blue aura. His wings and armour detached themselves from his body, covering DexShoutmon's back while the armour protected the joint. What looked like the pelt covering AeroVeedramon's head replaced the helmet now. His wings gleamed for a moment before becoming metallic and hard. His lower jaw was still covered by the jawed mask, but the upper half of his face and head now looked like it was wearing a dragon head helmet, horns sticking out of it. His eyes changed from red to green. The V on his chest suddenly began to glow as golden tips extended from the ends, making it longer.

"And me to!" Metabee shouted as he sprinted towards them. He shot into the air, the green aura around him burning like a wildfire. His medaparts all split apart in various directions, then split into even smaller pieces. They attached themselves all over X3 like armour, forming shin pads, knee pads, a waist guard, elbow pads and arm braces. His machineguns attached themselves to Chrome's arms, forming Gatling guns, his seeker missiles attaching themselves to his unarmed left arm. Metabee's demolition parts transported onto their back, the demolition cannon coupled with the ammo pack serving as a jetpack.

"**DexShoutmon, X5 Metal!" **They screamed, all of their voices shouting out their new name, the energy behind the scream ringing out through the field.

**Death X Shoutmon Xros 5 Metal (X5M): Medabot Corporation, CES, Digital World**

**Level: Unknown**

**Type: Composition**

**Medafighter: Team Raging Beetle**

**Specialty: Unparalleled Combat**

**Medal Type: Kabuto, Kabuto, Alien, Digicores**

**Signature: Three Victorize**

**Notice: Medal Deficiency healed, all medals functioning at 100%**

X5M looked at his new body, power coursing through his veins.

"I don't believe it… I've powered up so much," DexShoutmon said quietly to himself. "DC, this is amazing! I didn't know that power like this existed!"

"If we couldn't Digivolve," DC started. "We'd show this guy the strength of those bonds of friendship! I believe in everyone you're DigiXrosed with up there, so you guys better not mess up! It's up to you now!"

"Yeah, leave it to me!" DexShoutmon yelled. The thrusters on his back started up, launching him into the air, brandishing the Shuriken in his right hand.

"_We've got this right now!" _Metabee yelled from within.

"_Yeah, there's no way we can lose now!" _Chrome added.

"_Don't get cocky guys," _Dorumon said. _"This is still new to all of us. We probably won't be able to fully utilize our individual abilities until we get used to this. For now we'll just have to do with increased stats." _DexShoutmon tossed Windstorm angrily at Giganko. Windstorm's razor sharp edges tore right through the armour, slicing apart cables and metal alike with ease. She flew out, leaving a gash in his shoulder, arriving back in DexShoutmon's hand. Giganko fired a hail of laser bullets at them. Shoutmon held up Windstorm, the Shuriken morphing shape into a large round shield. The lasers smashed against the shield, blowing them through the sky dizzily before they regained their balance.

"Metabee, Seeker missiles!" Ikki yelled through his watch.

"_I hear ya Ikkster!" _Metabee replied through the same watch.

"You to Chrome, show him our brother love!" DC yelled. "Chain Machineguns, on the double!"

DexShoutmon held up his left arm, Metabee's missiles glowing with power along with the machineguns.

"**Impact Missiles!" **Metabee yelled, a stream of missiles getting fired along with machinegun bullets. The attacks crashed into Giganko, his whole body going up in flames and a cloud of smoke. Giganko's antennae twitched slightly, electricity arcing between them. A huge ball of blue and yellow electricity shot out of his head. X5M barely had any time to put up his arms, the attack enveloping his whole body as he fell towards the ground.

"_Rookie!" _AeroVeedramon yelled. _"Don't tell me that's all the fighting spirit you have is it?"_

"Of course not!" Shoutmon yelled angrily, re-igniting the thrusters.

"_That's what I like to hear! A DigiXros with your very rival should double… no… _triple _your power! That's right Dorumon, I'm talking to you here! Feel my passion, my fighting spirit! The reason only I am your rival!" _The jets flared brighter than ever, X5M flying back into the air. Missiles were fired at them.

"Veedramon, you've gotta use those evasive moves we practiced!" Hiro yelled. "Try dodge pattern Theta, then move in for a V-Breath Arrow…"

"Forget that!" Veedramon shouted. "I'll make it flashy!" Veedramon dodged past all of the missiles, barrel rolling underneath them, swerving around them, grabbing one and holding onto that to escape the rest before slicing that with the shuriken.

"_I can fly like a pro to!" _Windstorm screamed. The Shuriken morphed, turning into a huge three bladed claymore with an orange hilt.

"No way!" Ryuga screamed in shock. "By fusing with Digimon, Windstorm's natural shapeshifting ability has increased exponentially, instead of becoming any bladed Medabot weapon, she can now also transform into any _Digimon _weapon! That's the Victory Grey Sword right now!"

"In that case…" Ryuga said. "Use your strongest sword move now, Meteor Buster!" X5M clutched the sword and flew higher into the sky, up into the very Stratosphere. He looked back down on Giganko.

"This is the end of the line for you!" he yelled. He shot back down to the ground like a comet. **"Meteor Buster, Attack!" **he yelled. All of the missiles attacking him simply exploded with no effect, the pain going unnoticed. Giganko stepped to the side at the last moment, the attack slicing right through his arm, right down to his foot. The whole of his right side exploded in a dazzling display.

**Giganko right arm 100% damage, functions ceased. Legs at 85% damage.**

X5M turned around, exhaustion finally setting into their limbs.

"_He's still walking?" _Chrome gasped.

"Can't this guy take a hint?"Shoutmon added. Giganko roared, blasting them to the ground with a huge missile, then finishing the job with a Death Break thunder ball. "I guess not…"he wheezed, then lay still, the Victory Sword reverted back to a Shuriken.

**Warning, 90% damage to left arm, 85% to right arm. Legs at 85% damage. Main servos and accessories strained. All purpose weapon at average of 70%.**

"This is bad, they're running out of power!" Ryuga said. "They can't handle having medals mixed in with Digi-Cores. At this rate, they'll break, and if that happens we're really done for."

"We just have to counter with a greater force, our souls!" DC yelled energetically, the flare in his eyes again.

"A greater force," Ikki mused. "That's it! Medaforce! If we use the Medaforce, X5M will be able to use his true power! Did you hear that? Use the Medaforce!" DexShoutmon didn't reply, even when Giganko took a huge lumbering step forward. "C'mon, the Medaforce!"

_Thud._

"Windstorm, wake up! You've gotta blast him!"

_Thud._

"DexShoutmon, move!" DC yelled, panic seeping in.

_Thud._

Ikki clenched his fists, fear setting.

"C'mon Metabee, move. You've got to. If you don't we're all gonna die! If the others can't do it, you have to!"

_Thud._

"Metabee!" Ikki could hear the tremble in his voice. He didn't just fear for his own life anymore. Also for Metabee, the unmoving Metabee.

_Thud._

"Please Metabee…"

"_**Initiating Death-Break Attack!" **_Giganko yelled, his antennae sparking with power.

"Metabee… Arrgh! **Move you stupid piece of junk!**" Shoutmon's, no… Metabee's eyes flashed on. Medaforce green radiated from his whole body as he got back up slowly, jerkily.

"**Dude… I rock!"**

**Medaforce Type 5 Active: Three Victorize.**

"**It's time," **they all said together. **"To kiss your bot goodbye!" **He held up Windstorm's shuriken in front of him, the V on his chest glowing red with power. **"X3 Victorize, FORCE!" **They both fired their attacks at the same time. A burning V shaped laser shot out of X5M's chest while Giganko fired his energy ball. They clashed, lightning flashing as they impacted, the very clouds stirring from the collision. The laser flickered as the Death Break began pushing it back, slowly towards the onlookers.

"C'mon Chrome! Shoutmon! Show them your burning souls!" DC yelled.

"Dorumon, you can do it! I believe in you!"

"Veedramon, only you can pierce the very Heavens with your laser!"

"Windstorm, don't give in! **Go Metabee!" **Their eyes flashed even brighter.

"This is the true power of the DigiXros!" They all yelled. "One Body, One Soul, an attack to split the heavens, I'll show it to you now! **Five M_Victorize, ****MAXIMUM!"** The laser began glowing like magma, the size and power increasing, the laser digging through the energy blast. Giganko roared angrily, his antennae increasing the gravity even more. X5M's feet dug into the ground, their parts straining against the force as they angrily pushed up. The collision point exploded in green and red light, DexShoutmon dissolving as all of the respective Digimon flew back, scratches and bruises lining their bodies… All except for Metabee. Still, he kept going forward, standing on the Victorize laser, propelling himself with the power of all of their hearts, regardless of the burns and damage he was doing to himself.

"**Booyah!" **he yelled, readying his fist. He punched with all of his strength, the blow completely crushing Giganko's face with a titanix impact, the laser coming with him. Giganko sparked a few more times, twitching as his systems tried to register just how much damage was dealt. Next, the explosion. A brilliant explosion that lit up the entire sky, the sound deafening, and yet like music to the ears of the people down below.

**Giganko Functions Ceased.**

Metabee landed on the soft grass on both feet, his fist planted in the grass. His medaparts ached, his medal burned and his head felt like it was used like a football. No he _didn't _feel good, but he was exhilarated all the same. Everyone cheered and whooped, the huge green and white menace finally gone, its headless body all that had survived. Metabee looked back at the people who had been part of the fusion. All of them looked practically dead, Chrome having already ejected his medal, on the floor next to Shoutmon, or what was left of him. Shoutmon had been replaced with what looked like a tiny red puppy dog (or its _head _at least) with teeny little legs and bat wing-like ears. Dorumon had also shrunk considerably to a small purple wolf-pup, and Veemon, though at least with arms as well as legs, still looked like he was a third his actual size. Windstorm was leaning on her sword like a crutch. He looked Metabee in the eye and gave him a thumbs up. He barely had the energy to respond himself before Ikki scooped him up in a vicious bear hug.

"Ikki… what're you trying to do?" Metabee gasped. "Snuff me out yourself?!"

"No Metabee, you scared me there!" Ikki cried. "I thought you were gone when you wouldn't answer me! Don't ever do that to me again!"

"Can't promise anything but I'll try," Metabee said when Ikki let him go. "Now can we please get outta here? I don't want to deal with the blue guy's army again."

"I don't wanna deal with _anything _again!" the baby Veemon said, falling down on his rump.

"What happened to them?" Ikki asked.

"They used up to much power," Hiro said as he picked up Veemon, tickling his belly like a toddler. Veemon even laughed like one. "They've shrunk back down to their in-training or baby levels. Veemon became Demi-Veemon, Dorumon became Dorimon, and Shoutmon became Jyarimon. They'll grow back to their full size in a day or two. Hopefully."

"They're not the only ones who used up too much power," DC said weakly. Everyone turned to him. His whole body was flickering like data, and computer diodes and cathodes ran all along his face and arms as if he were a living computer chip. Everybody gasped in shock as he collapsed on the ground, before finally they let out a joint breath as they heard him snoring loudly.

"Either way, we've got to move, or find a place to hide," Leo said. "We probably only have about ten minutes with the light show you guys made. Let's get outta here, quickly." The group all followed Leo to the direction that Fleria indicated, walking swiftly and with a purpose. Ikki took one last look at the enemy that had troubled them so much, then chased after them.

**Author Note: For those not so familiar with Digimon Terminology, the second X in DexShoutmon X5M's name is pronounced 'Cross' and not 'Ex' as is also the case with DigiXros which is pronounced 'Digi Cross.' **


	29. I'll Come Back Safely

**Sorry for the delay… Haha! I have made a triumphant return in a blaze of glory! Excuse my regular long pauses for another chapter is up! And since I'm feeling UNBELIEVABLY energized this time…**

**This is the Real Deal presents…**

**THIS IS… SPIRIT! REAL, TRUE, IRONCLAD, **_**SPIRIT!**_

**Chapter 29:**** I'll Come Back Safely…**

"Honestly, you were just being stupid out there!" Yami scolded.

"I'm sorry, I'll be a bit more careful next time," DC said tiredly.

"If you'll still be alive by that time that is! Honestly, you're so careless! And look at what you did to everybody else to!"

"Stop scolding him so much," Ceresmon interrupted. "I think he's learned his lesson."

The scarred forest below them was nothing more than a memory as they sailed across the clouds atop Ceresmon Mega's back. Ikki and Samantha were hunched over by a tree trying to repair Metabee and Windstorm's medaparts, their tin-pets cluttered together like skeletons, empty soulless eyes staring up at the sky. Further out were Leo and Ryuga, discussing battle tactics and the likes while the diminutive Dorumon ran around there feet, barking excitedly like a puppy. Everybody else had wandered off somewhere into the forest seeking shade and food (everybody was still wary of the fruits hanging from Ceresmon's back but it didn't look like there was any other alternatives…) while DC lay on a bed of soft grass with Shoutmon and Yami tending to him. Well, Yami at least. Shoutmon himself was still nothing more than a tiny head thing with legs and black marks underneath its large blue eyes. Chrome himself was also deactivated by the side of a tree, his medal snugly fitted inside DC's medawatch.

DC himself looked half dead, his eyes sunken in, his skin unnaturally pale for his dark complexion. His eyes themselves were glassy and unfocused, as if they were staring right through you. The diminutive Shoutmon (or Gigimon as he was calling himself) was busy rummaging around in DC's small pack, stuffing himself with anything edible he could find. Ceresmon's more human counterpart was watching over them in a hammock made of leaves, patting Gigimon on the head whenever he got close. Yami placed a towel of cold water over DC's head.

"Really, you always over-do everything. I just met you and already I have to look after you like a baby!"

"Really sorry," he wheezed. "I'll try be more careful next time…"

"I bet you _always _say that…"

"You're right about that." DC propped himself up on his elbows, wincing in pain as he did so. Yami gently pushed him back onto his back. "Although with how awful I feel now I think I'll listen for a change…"

"And you should," Hiro said as he joined them from deeper within the miniature forest, clutching his ever-present laptop. "The energy you've got inside you is really dangerous you know!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" DC asked. Hiro sat down beside him and opened up his laptop.

"Okay, everybody inside them has some kind of odd energy am I correct?" DC nodded his head slowly. "You guys being Medafighters just stuck to calling it meda-energy since that's what Medabots have, but this stuffs a bit different. The energy source inside us that lets us communicate our emotions and skills with Digimon, Medabots, and even Beyblade Bit-Beasts is all slightly different, but it's all basically Digital Natural Ability."

"Digital Natural Ability? DNA?"

"Exactly, but since that's confusing when you think of Deoxyribonucleic acid, most people or at least the people in Japan call it Digi-Soul."

"Try and use words that I can actually fit in my _head _next time…" Hiro smirked.

"Sorry, I'll tone down the hippopotomonstrosous words…"

"Not funny… Is that even a word?"

"I think so, but not even _I _know how to spell it! Carrying on, Digi-Soul is pretty much what you transfer to a Digimon to make it Digivolve, so if you don't have enough Digi-Soul you can forget about ever getting past rookie. Of course, you can increase it by training your body and mind. With Medafighters it's not so important, but the more Digi-Soul you have the more skills you can transfer to your Medabot."

"Which is why to use the Shadow Sword the Medafighter also has to know the technique, it uses Digi-Soul to move at such high speeds, am I right?"

"Precisely. You'd be surprised how much data you can transfer with Digi-Soul. Of course, everybody's Digi-Soul is a bit different. Mine is…" Hiro held up his fist and furrowed his eyebrows in intense concentration. A thin stream of blue binary code flew around his fist, shooting around and around it, followed by another one, and yet another one, then one more followed by two red codes. They all broke as he opened his hand, sweat rolling off of his face from the exertion. "Mine is a Xros code, a rare type of Digi-Soul that means I can use a Digivice that lets me fuse Digimon together."

"A DigiXros!"

"No, something much stronger than a DigiXros, but I can't use it that easily. People with Xros Codes either use Xros Loaders like yours or D-3s like mine, though you don't need a Xros Code to use a Darkness Loader but that's a bit weaker than a regular Xros Loader. Either way, mines different to everybody else's. Ryuga and Yami have a Dream Code, a less rare one that relies on the hopes and dreams they had as kids."

"Okay, how does this link with me being stupid yesterday?"

"Simple. You have a Xros Code, by far the most dangerous DNA signature there is in existence."

"The most powerful?!"

"No! If anybody it's probably Ikki who has the most powerful Digi-Soul, I heard he could manifest the image of future enemies simply out of pure determination… Yours is just the most dangerous. Xros Codes are highly volatile, I don't know if they turn your cells into isotopes or not, it's just weird. Young kids that activate powerful Xros Codes can even fall mortally ill from the intense power. They can fuse cells, but they can also fission them. Both of those release harmful amounts of raw energy, more like the stuff Beyblades use, and it can totally shred up your organs if they don't have time to adjust to each increase in power."

"Umm…" Hiro sighed.

"Let's put it this way. I've got a Xros Code, but if I tried going Mega Level the first time I got Veemon I would have _died! _If I also met my fated partner and tried to, for simplicities sake, 'DigiXros' I also would have died! I have to take it up in steps. First Rookie, then Champion or Armour, next Ultimate and DigiXros, then finally Mega and mode change, that way my body will adjust to each stage."

"Oooookaayy…."

"You need to do the same thing, you have to go in stages. A X2 class Digimon, then X3, then X4, then X5, then X6, then Ultimate level and finally X7 if you ever get that strong. You skipped pretty much all those and went to a X6 class Digimon with X5M, make sense? Your cells would have been hyper respiring to make up for the huge energy loss, the oxygen debt afterwards would be massive! You could have literally drowned in Digi-Soul!"

"That doesn't sound good at all…"

"Exactly! And it's worse because you have a _double _Xros Code! The one inside you that nobody knew about, and the one sleeping in Shoutmon that came out of his hazard symbol and into your hands as a Xros Loader. Don't ask me _why _Shoutmon has a Xros Code because the only explanation doesn't make any sense. The moral of this lecture is that you have to go up in _stages_, not all in one go like last time. Understood?"

"Understood, sorry… I won't mess up next time…" Hiro stood up again.

"Well on the bright side, you'll probably Digivolve a lot faster than all of us since your body has already tasted X6. Still, go easy on it next time. Don't try anything higher than X4 alright?" DC raised his arm in a weak imitation of a salute as he left. Ceresmon watched the whole exchange in complete silence before speaking up.

"You and Hiro worry about him a lot don't you?" She said to Yami.

"Hey, what're you trying to suggest?" Yami yelled. DC's face had already turned a deep shade of red. "He's like a little brother!"

"I'm not suggesting that at all!" Ceresmon laughed. "I was thinking something else entirely but if you say so…"

"Stop giving him ideas already! He can look, but not touch!" DC stuck his tongue out at her.

"As if I was thinking anything!"

"Oh yes, I forgot, you're never really thinking anything if you got yourself in _this _bad shape!"

"Ouch! Low blow to my pride! That's not… Hey Gigimon, what're you doing? That's _my _Mars Bar! You can't take my stuff just because I'm injured! Gigimon!" Ceresmon rolled her eyes as the three proceeded to argue with one another.

"It looks like I might have made things worse…"

. . .

After two days of non-stop flying, Ceresmon felt she had to land. With only two more days left of travelling ahead of them, nobody minded losing an afternoon or so of travel for a lunch break. And besides, they were near a village anyway so it seemed safe. With a surprisingly graceful landing for a gigantic stone bird, Ceresmon Mega landed. Ceresmon herself stayed on, lowering everybody to the ground in grass hammocks.

"I'll stay up here," Ceresmon said. "It would be ill fitting for one such as myself to be seen among the common folk. You can gather supplies and the like here. I would also advise gathering a few more members to your team. The Legend Army stronghold will not be easy to take out."

"They've got a point," Ikki said. "Last time we only won at Medaropolis because all of our friends came to help us, and even then we lost almost all of our members by the time we made it to the HQ."

"But don't forget, we've got Digimon on our side now!" Shoutmon said grinning. "And since I feel rejuvenated and back to my full size… Chrome! Let's race!" Chrome looked up at him in confusion.

"Me? Are you sure? I'm kind of a machine so I never get tired…"

"So? I've got metal muscles, I can compete! Race you to that village over there! Ready… Set…" Before he could even say go both of them were off, thinking the very same thing between them.

"Wow… Shoutmon's more energized than usual," Veemon noted. "But it just fills me with energy to! Dorumon!"

"What is this, race your rival week?" Dorumon said jokingly.

"Aha! You've admitted that I'm your rival!" Veemon yelled triumphantly.

"No! I didn't mean it like that!"

"Hey no fair!" Agumon butted in. "I thought _I _was your rival Veemon!" Veemon completely ignored him.

"I challenge _you _to a race! Three-two-one-go!" Before either Agumon or Dorumon could even prepare themselves Veemon was off, all that was left of him being a cloud of dust. A split second later Dorumon set off after him, with Agumon awkwardly stumbling after them on his shorter reptilian legs.

"Ignoring Veemon's usual… weirdness… why's Shoutmon so fired up?" Hiro asked.

"Apparently their band was supposed to do a dig here so he's hoping on meeting up with his friends," DC answered. "I guess we should go after them shouldn't we?"

. . .

The village wasn't really what they'd been expecting after Minstrel village. The buildings were all bright and colourful and… Made up of children's building blocks. Odd shades of greens, blues and pinks were commonplace. Ikki was sure he could see a gigantic teddy bear walking the streets, followed by a line of bouncing tiny head-like digimon with no limbs. The pavement wasn't really pavement at all, but soft multi-coloured mats with colourful designs on them. A gigantic slow moving toy train with more baby digimon riding on it passed in front of them, the sounds of children laughter bubbling around them.

"Umm… Ryuga? What is this place?" Leo asked warily.

"Looks like we stumbled upon Primary Village," he said with a slight half smile. "This is one of the places that defeated Digimon return to. You see, once a Digimon dies its core gets recycled and turns back to a Digi-Egg to be born again as a new digimon. So this is a giant day-care centre that they sometimes go to until they mature into rookies to go off on their own."

Shoutmon stood stock still, his eyes drinking in the site.

"No way… I got the directions wrong… I guess I won't be able to meet Etemon or Lilymon this time…" Chrome patted him on the shoulder.

"Cheer up buddy, at least you'll be able to see Leomon again right?"

"That's right! He would've turned into a Digi-Egg to!" Shoutmon's spirits sunk again. "But when a Digimon is reborn it doesn't have any of its old memories. It's pretty much a completely different Digi…" Even his V shaped horns looked like they were drooping slightly in sadness.

"Hey buddy, don't worry about it. We'll find your friends again alright? Your band went on hiatus so they're probably still in Minstrel village right now waiting for you! For now though we'll just hang out for an hour until Ceresmon can recover, that sound good?"

"Surrounded by babies?" Before Chrome could reply the giant teddy bear spotted them. He ran towards them, tottering slightly with each step.

"Tamers have arrived! Thank goodness for that! You must help us, please!" Ikki found it hard to imagine that the thing that stood at four times his own height would need much help.

"Umm… What's wrong?" Ikki asked. "This place looks pretty peaceful so I don't think that…"

"Primary Village is in grave danger!" The teddy carried on without listening to Ikki. "It's the Legend Army, their looking for something, but we don't know what! Oh it's awful I can't _bear _it oh dear!" The teddy broke into tears, the teardrops streaming down in torrents to make a puddle on the floor.

"Calm down friend," a more reliable sounding voice said. What must have been a Leomon appeared next to the bear, patting him on the back soothingly. "The children are all going to be fine." Shoutmon blinked once as he saw the familiar face before going back to his depressed demeanour.

"No fair, you look just like him… The only difference is your smell, you're just taunting me…" Leomon looked at Shoutmon questioningly.

"Ignore him, he's just having a bad day," DC said. "What's so bad that it's gotten your friend in such a state?"

"It's a horrible problem," the bear said. "I hate to _bear _the facts to you, so just speak to Leomon…"

"And maybe then we'll hear no more of your bear jokes, those are painful to listen to…"

"Agreed," everybody replied in perfect sync.

"The Legend Army has been sitting in the Digital World for a few weeks now and they've been destroying anything that comes in their way. They clearly aren't here for total domination otherwise they would have gone straight towards the king's castle, or blocked off support from the other three great monarchs. No, the Legend Army is looking for something, and they're razing any towns in their way to. So I did some reconnaissance work, and I found out that the next village that they're going to destroy, is _here_ and they will do it within a few hours!"

"Why here?" Akkia asked. "This is getting pretty important. Fleria said they're looking for the six legendary virus digimon right? Wouldn't they be in more dangerous places than a nursery then?"

"I know little about their true motives," Leomon said. "But recently they aren't marching through dangerous areas that are defended by The King's men, but the smaller unimportant areas, and more importantly, all of the villages where the deceased are reborn, just like Primary village. I'm not sure why they are doing this, but they are definitely going to attack Primary village next, of this I am certain."

"Hey, maybe it's because one of the digimon they're trying to get is already defeated," Koji said. "If they were trying to capture it and they accidentally destroyed it for example, it may have revived somewhere here as a baby level digimon. In that case we should really try and protect this place! We can't let the Legend Army get closer to their goals, who knows how many of those Digimon they already have!"

"I think the more important thing is to protect the children here," Samantha pointed out. "They're just babies, if they get attacked they're done for!"

"So you'll help us?" Leomon pleaded. "We don't have any fighters here apart from me and Monzaemon over here. We're desperate for help."

"Was that a cry for help I heard?" An overly charismatic voice screamed. They all turned towards the source of the voice. Standing by the gate were three familiar looking Digimon, one of them tapping his feet to the tune of a song only he could hear.

"Etemon! Lilymon!" Shoutmon yelled, running up to his former band members. Etemon seemed to have picked up a leather biker's jacket somewhere along the way to them, but other than that he was exactly the same as before. Lilymon was for some reason a lot like how Ikki imagined her to be. She looked roughly human-like, although the sleeveless dress she was wearing looked like it was made out of a large pink flower petal with vines on the front. She also wore long sleeved green gloves that opened up at the wrists like blooming flowers. Her boots were leaf green much like the four leaves that were crossed over on her back like wings. A large pink lotus flower sat comfortably on her head as hair and her enormous green, borderline black eyes stared at them with playful curiosity. Sitting on Etemon's head was what looked like an odd fox-dog hybrid with red fur and blue stripes, and oddly enough nine stiff tails. "Who's this guy?"

"Why, it's none other than the reincarnation of our old buddy Leomon!" Etemon said. "Can't you see the resemblance?" Shoutmon stared at the child-like digimon on Etemon's head.

"I'm not so sure about that part," he said. "But they _did _look familiar, and they had lots of food to!"

"He smells kinda familiar but how sure are we that this is the real Leomon?"

"He eats like him," Lilymon said. "He ate so much in one go he Digivolved right up to rookie! I didn't know a digimon before Leomon who could skip three years of their life just by eating!" Shoutmon eyed him suspiciously.

"I thought I would recognize him instantly but…"

"Oh come on, can't you tell? That's the furry man for sure!" Etemon yelled. "Although he's little more than an Elecmon now…" Elecmon nibbled at his ear playfully. "Besides, the little guy needs a home anyway. Leomon would take in a little critter like this so I don't see why we can't, he didn't have any family to go to last I checked. You see, the nursery he was at was destroyed. Elecmon's lucky that he was out at the time, and that we were there to save him to. So with my honour as a superstar on the line, I will not let another village go down like his! So we're getting ready to kick some bad guy butt!" Akkia furrowed her brow in thought.

"I'm not sure that kicking butt is the best option here," she said. "I mean, we could always fight the Legend Army on neutral ground if we all used individual tactics to isolate them and eliminate them one by one. It works on the assumption that the enemy is already slightly battle weary from prolonged fighting, or that our Mega levels and the Medaforce will counter any attack they send our way, but what will happen if they attack us here? We'll be in close quarters against a superior force, and we'll be in real trouble if we have to watch over the baby digimon here…"

"So what if we instead use the village as a giant trap?" Ikki picked up. "We evacuate all of the residents here instead…"

"And lure the enemy in…" Akkia continued picking up after him as they continued talking in turns.

"And then blow the whole village up!"

"Wait, what?!" Leomon yelled. Ikki ignored him as he kept talking.

"No wait. That might not be a good idea…"

"Since this place probably holds sentimental value…"

"Then we blockade the entrance to make them think we're still defending the village…"

"Then sneak attack with Windstorm's Medaforce at their flanks…"

"Then pick off any stragglers with Sumilidon's speed…"

"Will you two stop doing that?!" Samantha screamed stepping between them. "You're making my head spin just trying to think through all of that!" Both Ikki and Akkia rubbed the back of their heads sheepishly.

"Sorry about that," Ikki apologized. "I didn't even realise what we were doing!"

"Yeah," Akkia continued. "We used to do that a lot when we were younger, but this is the first time in years that's happened. Actually this is the first time in years we've spent so much time together, being siblings and all…"

"Well we can find time to bond later," Leo said. "Right now that plan you two came up with might just be what we need. Okay, our main objective is to evacuate the children. Being kids who are tiny and generally a nuisance, it's gonna be hard to get them all out of here."

"I've already gotten a few of them to the mountain range just beyond here," Monzaemon said. "It's going to be a _beary _difficult task ahead of us…" Leo resisted the urge to start groaning at the awful pun.

"Ignoring that… I think most of us should focus on getting the kids out for now. DC, because you still look a little bit unsteady on your feet, don't exert yourself too much. Station yourself at the entrance and make yourself as visible as possible. Your Xros Loader is pretty rare, they're gonna want to get their hands on it, and if they've got a profile on your personality already they're gonna think that making yourself open is normal for you if you claim it's something like a man's fight, I dunno. Ikki, you station yourself nearby out of sight. I'll support you, Yami support DC, and take the Darkness Loader to. Since DC's so weakened he's gonna need some help to DigiXros safely. Everybody else finish getting rid of the kids first, then remain on standby until the plan's fully complete.

Once we get through phase one, Samantha, you use the Dragoon Storm attack to blast back the remaining enemy forces in a tornado. You can handle that?"

"Easy as pie!"

"Good, now let's split!" The gang separated to their various appointed tasks. Just before Ikki could run off Koji grabbed his shirt.

"Ikki, what happened while I was gone?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"We were never this organised at Medaropolis, what happened that jacked up the group this much?" Ikki paused for thought.

"I'm not really sure, I guess we just saw the huge difference in power between us and the Tamers and realised just how weak we really were."

"Well I guess you've got a point there. Sumilidon and I have been talking this over, and frankly we feel completely useless right now. It's like we're not even here anymore."

"Aw don't say that Koji, you're an important member of the team, we need you here!" Koji shook his head.

"For some reason I find that very hard to believe… It's just like at the WRC, I'll soon become your weakest link, our foes will be able to exploit my weakness. Even if I'm a better Medafighter than you, I'm not a better commander, nor am I better teammate than you or Leo."

"Hey, don't talk like that, you'll get me feeling down to…" Koji shook his head.

"It's the truth and I've got to say it. The truth is that I'm scared of all this. I don't know how you guys are taking this all in so well. DC's like a little kid so this must all be some big adventure to him, but you and Samantha must be as tough as nails. Well, Samantha's crew is called the Screws, but they've never been known for being very brave…"

"Yeah, I don't know if it's just me, but maybe she's changing a bit… Becoming more… I dunno, something?" Koji smiled.

"Well at least I won't ever have to worry about you getting between me and Karen anymore."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?!"

"Oh come on Ikki, no need to play dumb. So who are you gonna choose? Samantha or Erika?" Ikki's face turned bright red.

"Hey no fair! You can't do that! And you just want Karen all to yourself anyway!" Koji laughed to himself as he transported Sumilidon to himself.

"Well, we'll talk later Ikki Tenryou. Don't let us down oh brave commander." Koji and Sumilidon left, leaving Ikki all on his own, even Metabee gone with Windstorm already.

"Matters of the heart, _boss_?" Queen Bee asked from her medawatch.

"Shut up and help me catch these things already," Ikki said as he transported her parts. "We have about an hour of daylight left… Let's make the most of it…"

. . .

The sunset gave the woods a dark climactic feel to it, shadows being cast as overlong spectres on the ground. DC stood atop a large boulder placed near the entrance, the wind making his jacket billow in what he thought must have been the perfect image of _cool_.

"Chrome, you ready for this?" DC asked.

"Manufactured ready!" Chrome confirmed.

"Hey, what about me?" Shoutmon whined.

"I was just going to get to you if you had been patient and waited," DC said. "Are you ready though?" Shoutmon held up his hand, his microphone materialising in it from seemingly nowhere.

"Now I am!"

"By the way, I was wondering, since you make your microphone kinda appear or shoot out of your arm, can you make more of them or something?"

"No, I've only got one mic," Shoutmon replied. "Every Shoutmon has their own special mic that only _they _can use. I can't even get it replaced! Without it, I'm not even a Shoutmon anymore! I'm just a Whispermon or something…"

"What? Seriously? So if I hid your mic somewhere…"

"Don't do that!" Shoutmon yelled. "If you lose it I'll never ever forgive you!"

"He's serious man," Etemon said as his trio arrived. "You don't joke when it comes to their mic. The urban myth is that if a Shoutmon loses its mic, it'll slowly begin to lose power and all of its charisma, shrinking and weakening and becoming gravely ill, until it completely DISSAPPEARS!"

"Whoa… That's not good," DC murmured.

"Exactly," Shoutmon spat at him. "So don't take it man, I'm serious."

"Alright, sorry, I was just joking, don't get mad at me like that or else I won't be able to DigiXros you properly…"

"You won't be able to in any case without some help," Yami said as she walked towards them, followed closely by BlackGatomon. "Do you have any fusions planned so I can link this thing to them?" she asked as she held up the Darkness Loader.

"Oi, that thing's creepy, are you sure it's safe to use?" Chrome asked.

"Don't worry, you're not part of the fusion this time," DC said. "DigiXros gets stronger if the people involved are friends right? Then link it to Elecmon and Etemon. I've got a plan…"

A low droning sounded overhead. In the distance, a low flying saucer flew above the forest, dropping crates of Medabots and skydiving Digimon.

"Looks like the party's already getting started," BlackGatomon said, cracking her knuckles. "You know, I really love playing with these guys, it's like chasing mice!"

"You'll get your turn partner," Yami said, stroking her head. "But for now we should get ready for them. This isn't going to be pretty."

"Yami, get up here on the rock with me," DC said. "I think our Digivices will work better if they're next to each other." Yami climbed up the large boulder, nearly tripping as she went up. The first of the forces arrived through the bush, a green bipedal insect-like digimon with red hair hidden beneath a green insect like helmet carapace and large orange eyes. A set of mosquito like wings were attached to his back, and the holes on his black armoured arms had the tell-tale signs of stingers. By his sides were two Roadrunners. Then, a wave Guardromon troops stomped behind him.

"You there, stand aside and you won't get hurt!" the leader digimon said. "You have my pride as commander Stingmon to bet on that! We're simply here to stamp out the dangerous dragon digimon being housed here!"

"Dragon digimon?" Yami asked. "I think you're mistaken, this is Primary village, filled with children, not dangerous enemies."

"Your lies won't work on me here!" the Stingmon yelled. "We know that it's being kept here. Are you also working as part of some kind of resistance? Or are you a Crack Team from the King's Army?"

"So your boss is lying to you to huh?" DC said ominously. Yami looked at him with worry.

"Oh boy… This won't end well…"

"State your business here!" Stingmon yelled. "Or else I shall be forced to cut you down!" DC laughed to himself.

"It looks like you're a little bit confused, so it's my job to educate you." He tilted his cap backwards on his head. "I am the light in the darkness, the hope whose brilliance transcends space, time and reason!"

"Idiot, what're you doing?" Lilymon asked. "You'll just make them even more mad!"

"Who cares? A true man bets everything on the line!" DC yelled back before continuing his speech. "With these two hands I'll forge my own path, if there's a wall in my way, I'll break it down! **The powers of Heaven and Earth, one who rivals the gods, the great General, DC of Malawi stands before you!**"

Absolute silence.

Not even the leaves made noise from the wind blowing.

"Umm… soooo you're a general?" Stingmon asked. DC hung his head in shame.

"After that long speech that's all I get…" His grief quickly turned to rage, clenching his fists angrily. "Do you know how hard it is to make those speeches?! I wanna see you do better! That's it, it's go time!" He held up his Xros Loader, then winced as his whole body briefly flickered into data, just for a second. Yami placed her hand on his hand that was holding the Xros Loader.

"DC, don't push it alright?" she said.

"Right, sorry, I totally forgot that for once there's somebody worrying about me," he said. "And its someone pretty to! So I'll have to come back safely this time."

"S-shut up already!" Yami stammered. "Anyway, we have to do this together this time." DC nodded his head affirmatively.

"**Lilymon Shoutmon," **DC screamed.

"**Elecmon, Etemon," **Yami added, then together:

"**DOUBLE XROS!" **They slammed the Xros Loader and Darkness Loader together, the tops of them slamming together in a fit of sparks. The Digimon shot into the air, Shoutmon covered by his red aura, Etemon in an orange one, Elecmon in a blue lion shaped one and Lilymon in a pink one. They circled around before crashing together.

"**DOUBLE XROS!" **they screamed as they clashed. Light encased them in a dazzling array of colours.

"No! Somebody, stop that fusion!" Stingmon screamed. The Guardromon all put up their arms, firing their missiles at it to no avail.

"**Useless! Your weak firearms will never harm us!" **Lilymon yelled. The light died down to reveal a completely new figure. Lilymon stood before them, but now wearing Etemon's biker jacket, the teddy at Etemon's side now attached to her hip. Shoutmon's mic appeared in her hand before morphing into a gleaming red electric guitar vaguely shaped like a V and with flame designs all along the neck. Larger versions of Elecmon's tails floated around her like an enormous halo before joining together on her back to form a kind of cape. Hey eyes turned electric blue in a flash of lightning and Shoutmon's V appeared on her right arm like a gauntlet and Shoutmon's headphones on her head.

"**PunkLilymon!" **she screamed.

**PunkLilymon: Vaccine type**

**Level: Ultimate**

**Type: God Man**

**Special Attacks: Soul Crusher, Rowdy Rocker, Xros Burning Rocker, Hendrix Cannon, King the Fusion**

**Tamer: DC**

**Also known as "The Queen of Rock N' Roll," a Lilymon that has embraced the power of rock and roll, this digimon can freely use all of the powers and abilities of those fused with it, and more. It has a beautiful singing voice and can play almost every instrument in existence, though its passion clearly lies in rock music and electric guitars.**

She didn't hesitate to attack, strumming her guitar aggressively. Flames flew out of the instrument, burning everything nearby along with the sound waves.

"A Soul Crusher?!" DC asked, covering his ears from the intense sounds. "Is she playing… A Queen song? Bohemian Rhapsody?"

"**So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye?!" **she sang, the aggressiveness of the attack increasing as she played her guitar.

"**So you think you can love me and leave me to diiiiee?!**

**Ooooooohhh baby!**

**Can't do this to me baby!**

**Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here!"**

Enemy's fell left right and centre, disintegrating into tiny bits of data. A Roadrunner sprinted through the sound waves, kicking her right in the face. She stopped playing as she stared up at the Medabot with rage. She spun her guitar around so she was holding the neck instead.

"You interrupted my jam session…" She smiled evilly as she clutched the guitar tighter. "Maybe I should play a more soothing tune! **Xros Burning Rocker!**" She smashed the guitar against the ground, a huge flaming V coming off of it, shredding right through the Roadrunner as if it wasn't even there. The V smashed through the ranks of enemies, decimating them. "Now, **Rowdy Rocker!**" Without the flames this time, she swung her guitar crazily, crushing digimon with each blow, bits of earth flying into the air whenever it hit the ground. Stingmon flew into the air, avoiding each strike.

"Such savagery won't work on me! Guardromon squads, fall back into defensive positions, Roadrunners around the flanks. Stingmon crack team, follow my lead, formation Delta!" More Stingmon and Roadrunners appeared from within the forest, going around PunkLilymon. A Stingmon crashed into her from behind, a long needle going through her back, sending her straight to the ground. She roared in rage, fire building up around her as she pushed the Stingmon off, only to find more of them piling on top of her.

"This is totally different to normal," DC said. "We're never losing like this, they're way stronger!"

"BlackGatomon, time we lend a hand!" Yami said, holding up her other Digivice.

"**BlackGatomon Bio-Merge to…" **They fused together forming the tall and powerful figure from before. "**Lilithmon!"**

She held her hands in front of her, a dark ball of energy forming in front of her. "**Darkness Wave!**" A huge tidal wave of dark energy poured out of the ball, submerging the pile of Stingmons. Three of them flew out just in time as the rest of them dissolved away into a puddle of black tar. PunkLilymon leaped out of it, her wings smoking.

"Hey, careful with that thing!" she yelled angrily. "You nearly killed me!"

"Sorry sweat heart, there can only be one heart throbbing beauty on stage at a time!" Lilithmon said with a wink.

"Very funny," Lilymon groaned as she put her hands together, the flower petals on her wrists joining together like one flower. The V on her wrist shifted place to in front of her hands, glowing gold before turning into Shoutmon's head, only with a cannon sticking out of his mouth. **"Hendrix Cannon!**" She fired the cannon, but only one Roadrunner took the attack, falling to the ground as a burning wreck. The rest were still swerving around her rapidly, and she could swear if they had tongues they'd all be sticking them out at her.

"They're just plain too fast for you to hit!" DC yelled. "Don't you have something that will take them all out at once?"

"I could try another Xros Burning Rocker if you want," she said. She landed on the ground again, steam coming off of her guitar as if to relieve pressure.

"Wait, we've got bigger problems," Lilithmon said, pointing to the trees. A whole row of them collapsed completely as what could only be described as a walking arsenal marched towards them.

Three huge yellow four legged dinosaur like digimon marched towards them, various cannons and rifles sticking out of their back, all aimed at them. It was practically an entire armoury pointed at them.

"Where did they get Cannondramons from?!" Lilithmon yelled.

"Like I care, I'll just smash them all!" Lilymon screamed. She roared as her whole body became engulfed in flames, literally roared like a lion. Covering her whole body was a silhouette of Leomon, roaring along with her. "This one's for what you guys did to Leomon! **King the Fusion!**" Lilymon charged forward along with the Leomon spectre surrounding her, her right fist glowing bright orange. A Cannondramon fired, enormous lasers flying out of its gun, pushing back against Lilymon.

"Lilymon, don't give up!" DC yelled. "Chrome, lets show them how _real _heroes get the job done! **Gunmetal Barrage, now!**"

"That's just what I was waiting for!" Chrome said, his missiles rotating. They shot out in a glorious stream, explosions lighting up the battlefield as the Cannondramon's got hit in the face, their lasers flying astray and getting dull.

"That's just what I was waiting for!" Lilymon yelled, her eyes going red while the Leomon silhouette roared again. She pushed forward through the remaining lasers, socking a Cannondramon hard in the jaw. The beast roared in pain as all of the guns lining its back simultaneously began exploding, flames engulfing the two of them as it exploded within itself. Lilymon somersaulted through the air, twirling like a ballet dancer before landing next to DC.

"Now Ikki, Leo! While their all here and on the ropes!"

**Medaforce type 1: Type Crash Active**

**Medaforce type 2: Damage Ball Active**

**Medaforce type 4: Starlight Explosion Active**

**Unknown Medaforce: Buster Crash Active**

"And now exit, stage right!" Lilithmon yelled. She scratched the air with her claw, a huge cyan gash appearing in the air. With her other hand, she grabbed Lilymon, who then grabbed DC, who then grabbed Chrome. They all leaped through the gash in the air, the air changing to freezing cold to boiling hot within a fraction of a second, then they were gone.

DC stood back up on his feet, still disoriented from the transportation. The scenery looked different now, and Primary village was now below them at the foot of the mountain, not behind them.

"Hey, what happened? I thought we were…" Light lit up the village below, bright flaring reds blues and yellows flashing at the village entrance. A mushroom cloud shaped explosion grew and rolled from the force of the explosion below.

"Ikki happened, that's what," Yami said as she got up, rubbing her head in pain. Salamon was resting on her head, her legs splayed wildly. PunkLilymon had also split back up into the four separate forms.

"Yahoo! We won! We beat them!" Shoutmon yelled, jumping up and down triumphantly.

"Umm, wait, there's a problem," Chrome said. "I think I accidentally brought their commander with us…"

"What? What do you mean-" DC stopped midsentence. "Chrome… did you grab anybody when coming here?"

"Yami grabbed Lily, Lily grabbed you, you grabbed me, and I was the only one not grabbing anyone so I reached out to grab Yami so it would be a complete circle, but…"

Stingmon got up from his position on the floor, rubbing the pain away from his head.

"What happened? Where… You guys… You defeated my army… I'll never…"

"Wait just one second!" DC yelled. "You said that we were lying about trying to protect kids right? Well why don't you take one good look behind you!" Stingmon stared up at DC in confusion, then stared behind him into the cave they were resting in. All of the baby digimon were there busy bouncing up and down, playing with each other as if nothing was wrong with the world at all. A tiny red ball of fur bounced towards Stingmon himself.

"Are you one of the bad guys?" it asked innocently. Stingmon stared at it for a while before patting it on the head.

"I guess I am aren't I? I was one of the bad guys… But after seeing how cool the good guys are, I don't think I'll be a bad guy anymore…"

"You were a bad guy?" The ball of fluff stuck out a ridiculously large tongue at him.

"Come on, I'm on your side now!" Stingmon laughed. He turned to face DC again. "I don't know what's going on, but I joined the Legend Army to stop the six legendary digimon from reviving. They destroyed my home town, so I can't let them awaken. The Legend Army are hunting them to, so I thought that maybe if I went with them…

"But now I'm seeing things differently. Maybe the Legend Army isn't the answer I'm looking for…"

"So you're gonna join us?" Shoutmon asked enthusiastically. "You'd be a great addition to the team, you're really strong!"

"Yeah, I'll join you guys," he said. "I want to ask the boss of the Legend Army himself what his goals really are… I guess you could say that the scream of your soul reached me... But if I find that your brand of justice is just as tainted, I'll strike you down myself."

"As if you could ever beat us!" Lilymon said, then together with Shoutmon and Elecmon, pulled down her eyelid while sticking out her tongue. "But now, we've just got to wait for Ikki to return…"

. . .

Ikki stood up, his head feeling like an anvil was banging against his skull.

"Man was that a wild ride… Easy on the explosives next time guys!"

"Sorry about that, guess we kinda overdid it," Windstorm said sheepishly.

"Yeah but we won, so all's well that ends well right?" Metabee said. "Now let's get back to Ceresmon and finish this.

"No fair," Samantha said as she came out of hiding. "You guys just don't want me to test out Dragoon do you? I swear you're doing this on purpose!"

"Of course not!" Leo said. "I just underestimated the potential of four Medaforces at once…"

"You seriously could've killed us like that," Blackbeetle grumbled. "I felt like my arms were gonna fall off…"

"Well, shall we get back to the others?" Leo asked. "It doesn't look like we have much else to do here anyway-" Leo halted his speech.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Ikki asked as he dusted himself off.

"Ikki… Do we know what the Legend Army flag actually looks like?"

"Umm… Not sure really, a gigantic L maybe?"

"So what army is that?" Ikki followed his pointing finger. Off in the distance, an army of Digimon marched on, their stamping feet kicking up a cloud of dust. All of them were clad in armour from head to foot, completely obscured. Some of them were in Japanese samurai armour, others in the style of gladiators, but most clad in medieval armour with spears. Oddly enough, it looked like they were aligned like chess pieces, the shorter pawns all at the front, then behind them more abstract looking soldiers on horseback (or even centaurs altogether…) or in priests clothing or towering above them as giant mechas. At the front of the army was a tall knight in shining armour with a great sword strapped to his back. A holographic flag floated above them, the top left half of it being red with a rounded off version of a Shoutmon's head looking at them, while the bottom right corner had a black Queen Chess piece on it against a grey background. Flying next to the flag in the air was a large knight in shining armour with a red cape billowing out behind him. His helmet had a red dragon pelt on it with tiny bat wings on top of it and his eyes were glowing with energy. In his hands were a large shield and lance and just by looking at it Ikki could tell it was a Mega Level.

Hiro and Ryuga ran in just then.

"Sorry we're late guys, we just… Whoa! Who are they?" Ryuga asked. Dorumon looked at them with a half-smile.

"I know that banner, I know it well in fact…"

"They're not the Legend Army?" Ryuga asked. Dorumon shook his head.

"Far from it… They are the Chessmon Division of the King's men. They probably came to stop the Legend Army from encroaching into KingChessmon's lands. And they're led by KingShoutmon's great military general Knightmon as well…"

"Is that bad?" Ikki asked.

"Far from it!" Agumon yelled. "Especially if you include that guy flying above the army… That's a Gallantmon, a Royal Knight Class Digimon, but there's no way the highest ranking member of the Royal Knights would come down to defend a place as small as Primary village, so there's only one explanation for this…"

"Don't stop talking now, what is it?" Metabee asked impatiently.

"That army is the King's army, soldiers who fought in the Legendary Xros Wars under the sixth Legendary Hero, and that knight is the third Legendary hero himself… They're the Xros Heart Army, and Takuya Kanbara, people who have saved the entire Digital World!"

**This is what happens when I listen to loads of classic rock while writing up fan fiction! Sorry for the cliff hanger, but I just couldn't resist! That, and I didn't have the space to add them into this chapter sooooooooo… Hope you all enjoyed that chapter, but till then I bid you adieu!**


	30. Enter StormBeetle!

**I've got too many chapters everywhere, it's becoming hard to keep track of them all! But that aside, this is it! THE FINAL BATTLE (of this arc) IS FAST APPROACHING! I HAVEN'T BEEN SO PUMPED UP SINCE I FINISHED THE WAR ARC! Watching too much Gurren Laggan is bad for you (Important, the Giga Drill Breaker is a move from Gurren Laggan, not my own, tribute to the show and the special idiots who made it)… And my reasons for writing have been reinforced yet again after watching Bakuman to (show about two dudes trying to make a manga, sounds weird but I've learnt soo much about writing stories in general from it that I can honestly say I would be a lot worse without it…) The only thing I'm annoyed about is that I have to split this into two chapters and so end the finale on an odd number! I wanted chapter 30 to be the finale… Argh! Whatever! **

**PS: When Ceresmon says "Are we done here?" You may want to listen to some real strong sounding rock music, or the Digimon Xros Wars "We Are Xros Heart!" or Happily Ever After from the Gurren Laggan soundtrack. Something. Anyway…**

**With the fire in my soul and the lightning in my fingers, ****This is the Real Deal Presents:**

**This is Spirit! Clash of Sooooouuulllss!**

**Chapter 30:****Behold, StormBeetle!**

The army approached them, marching in step to their own tune, the drumming of their feet reverberating through the ground. Ikki stared in disbelief at the size of them all, and in even more shock at the enormous knight that was somehow soaring through the skies.

"The King? There's a king of the digital world?" Ikki asked, not taking his eyes off the knight for a second. Dorumon nodded his head slowly, his eyes glazed over as if he were stuck in an old memory.

"Yes, one of only three people to have successfully taken over the entire Digital World at once, the digimon that one the freedom of many during the Xros Wars, King Shoutmon." Leo frowned at the mention of the name.

"Wait, do you mean like DC's Shoutmon?"

"No, nothing like him," Hiro said. "DC has a Shoutmon, rookie level with rookie level defence but champion level offence. The king is a MonarchShoutmon, a champion with ultimate attack. He's on a whole other level to us. Still, if that's the Chessmon division, he probably won't be here this time…" The group stood off, waiting for the army to approach. The forces stopped their march once they were fifty metres away, the only ones still approaching them being the red armoured knight and the shorter one on foot. They both stopped before the group.

"Are you by any chance the humans who entered the Digital World a few days earlier?" the knight asked, looking down at Ikki. Ikki nodded his head nervously.

"Y-yeah, Ikki Tenryou, third strongest Medafighter in Japan…"

"Tenryou? As in _the _Ikki Tenryou?"

"Now duh, he just said it!" Metabee snapped. The knight unsheathed the sword on his back. Instinctively Windstorm stepped in front of Ikki, her sword looking sharpened for battle. The knight held the sword up in the air, the enormous golden blade gleaming in the setting sun, then stuck it point first into the dirt. They stared at the knight in confusion.

"I am Knightmon, leading general of King Shoutmon's army Xros Heart, warden of Lady Persiamon. The king apologizes for being unable to appear in person before you, but he's been especially busy of late. However, he sent me to remove the presence of the Legend Army from the Digital World permanently. He told me if I encountered the one called Tenryou that I should lend my blade to you."

"I don't think I'm even strong enough to carry that thing," Ikki said nervously.

"He means he wants to help you," Ryuga said, staring up at the taller knight next to him with the red cape. "Although I'd like to know what this guy over here is doing…" The taller knight looked down at him, his red cape billowing from some unknown breeze.

"Oh, excuse me for not introducing myself," it said, his voice sounding like an odd combination of two voices together. "I'm Gallantmon, a mega level who fought in the incidents that occurred nine years ago." Gallantmon began glowing bright yellow before shrinking rapidly, his cape shrinking to. The light died down revealing two individual figures. One was a teenager, nineteen perhaps with messy brown hair and mud brown eyes. A pair of yellow rimmed goggles with blue lenses sat on his head, the black straps helping to tie down his unruly hair. He had a large blue zip up hoodie and grey jeans. In his hands he held a golden D-Arc, much like Ryuga's apart from its colour scheme. "But you can call me Takato. Takato Matsuda. And this is my partner, Guilmon." He beckoned towards the digimon by his side.

Guilmon looked like a red dragon, roughly the same size as Ikki himself with gentle looking yellow eyes and black marking on its head, a black triangle surrounded by three smaller ones opposite each face of the triangle. It had pointy bat-wing like ears and on its white belly a toxic hazard symbol like Shoutmon's.

"Hiyas!" Guilmon said, waving an enormous muscular clawed hand at them. "Nice to meet you!" Dorumon blew a puff of hot air at him while Veemon ran up to him excitedly, shaking his paw animatedly.

"Hey there, nice to meet you to! I'm Veemon, but my friends call me Veemon, but you can just call me Veemon. This is my rival over here, Dorumon, so you can't have him alright? Just remember, he's MINE! Not yours, mine! And… And you smell funny…"

"That's because he's also a Royal Knight Class digimon like you," Hiro explained. "But my laptop picked up another Digivice and the signature for an Aldamon… Where's Takuya Kanbara?" As soon as he asked the question a small hole opened up in the ground, dirt and rubble shifting to the side as it widened. A long golden claw poked out of the ground, followed by an arm covered in red armour. A huge figure pulled itself out of the ground, flames burning on its back. In its hand it held the head of a small Medabot with a drill for a nose.

"That's me over here," the digimon said, tossing the Medabot on the ground before them. While Knightmon was only two metres or less, this new digimon stood at six or seven metres like Gallantmon at first. Red armour covered its whole body with a thick scaled tail swaying behind it. Blonde shoulder length hair sat on his head, his forehead and side of his face protected by horned headwear. A pair of red wings sprouted from its back. Golden and red light engulfed him before he shrunk down to a young boy, perhaps twelve or thirteen. He was wearing a yellow T-shirt with an odd black marking on it and a pair or khaki brown shorts. A red jersey was tied around his waist and like Takato, he had a pair of goggles to, only his were on top of a green trucker cap on his head and with white square rims and grey lenses.

"Enjoying the view down there?" Takato said to Takuya with a playful smile.

"No fair, we were the same age last time… I hate time travel…"

"Time travel?" Ikki asked in confusion. "What's going on, and how come you can DigiXros with digimon or turn into them? Who are you guys?"

"There isn't the time!" Knightmon screamed. "Even as we speak the Legend Army is moving more troops to look for the last remaining Ziz fragments. We have to stop them now before it's too late! All we ask is that you help lead us to remove the Legend Army now!" Ikki looked at Leo who looked at Ryuga, who then looked at Hiro, then finally back at Ikki.

"I seriously have to make the decision?"

"You're the one he's talking to now," Leo said. "I think whatever the case we have to get to the Legend Army stronghold now." Ikki nodded his head before turning back to face the army and two tamers.

"So all of you are going to fight against the Legend Army now…"

"Yes!" they all screamed back at him. Ikki let out a deep breath.

"I don't know how we're going to be able to transport you all. There's a lot of you right now…"

"Not to worry!" DC shouted from above their heads. Everybody looked up to the source of the voice. Stingmon flew in the air, his wings vibrating animatedly. DC hung onto his ankles, swaying precariously with the wind. "We'll just have to march the whole way! With enough guts and determination, we can do anything!" As soon as he uttered the words his grip slipped, his body falling through the air before landing on the floor, rolling in the dust before standing back on his feet, barely a scratch on him. "So, let's go now while we still have daylight!" Yami flew in, LadyDevimon holding her in her arms before they landed gently on the ground.

"I don't think so," Hiro said. "There's another option. Your Xros Loader and the Darkness Loader. "They have huge storage capacity. We can store the entire army inside it while we travel on Ceresmon's back. How does that sound to you?"

"Wait, all of them can fit here?" DC asked, looking at his yellow Xros Loader in surprise. "I knew Shoutmon could but all of them?"

"Yeah, just hold it up and press the middle button." DC and Yami both held up the Digivices, looking on in wonder as the whole army turned bright yellow before shooting inside. DC clenched his fist tightly. "Alright! Now I've got a whole army on my side! That officially makes me the strongest one here, imagine that!" DC began laughing maniacally to himself, the others already drifting away from him as they headed back to the village. "Hey, guys, where are you going? Not fair guys, wait for…"

"Alright guys, this is it!" Leo shouted, not giving him time to finish. "This is going to be our final battle in the Digital World before we head back to finish off the tournament. Let's make this one count. Let's bring peace back to the digital world and get the heck out of here! Team Raging Beatle, **move out!**"

. . .

The early morning sky looked as grand as ever before, clouds rolling up beside them as Ceresmon flapped her enormous stone wings through the darkness. Ikki still wasn't sure how she was able to fly in the first place but he was glad for it. Without her the whole two day long journey wouldn't have even been possible. They were at the end of their time limit now. If they weren't back by the evening of the same day they might end up missing their match. No matter what Ikki tried he knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep again. Everybody else, including their two newest recruits were deeper in Ceresmon's forest, trying to gather warmth within the trees. Sitting there on his own on Ceresmon's head, it almost felt as if it was Ikki himself who was flying. Metabee walked up from behind him and took a seat next to him.

"Pre-exam jitters?" Metabee asked.

"I think this is much more nerve racking than a simple exam," Ikki said, a tremble audible in his voice.

"Still the same concept I think," Metabee said. "This will be a test of everything we've learnt together, everything we've got on the line. Of course you're a little spooked. But you know what Ikki? I know that we're gonna be totally fine."

"And how do you know that?" Ikki asked, his nerves still there.

"_Because we've got you leading us,_" Windstorm said from her medawatch. Before Ikki object, both Windstorm and Queen Bee's medaparts materialised before him. Taking the hint, he placed their medals in their backs. Their eyes lit up as they awoke. "We know that you're gonna make the right decisions and lead us, and even when we do mess up you're still there for us."

"Moku-chan speaking some sense, that's rare!" Queen Bee said. "But I agree. You've been a pretty decent Medafighter so far. I can see why Metabee and Windstorm have followed you so far actually."

"It's not just them either," another voice said behind Ikki. Ikki turned around to see Koji standing behind him, looking into his eyes with a piercing hard stare. "You've finally managed to surpass me, Japan's number one Medafighter minus Space Medafighter X. When I got here I didn't think I stood a chance against Digimon, and I still don't think I do, but you proved me wrong. You've shown me that as long as you didn't give in to your fear and kept a cool head, you could do it. DC might be the one who's getting all the glory here, but you're the unsung hero. You've never panicked once and even if Metabee is weaker than the digimon, it's been him who's been dealing the finishing blows. Heck, if DC wasn't so flashy about everything people would be throwing you parties!"

"You've done more than just that," Samantha said, stepping out from behind Koji. "You managed to change the way I think. I used to just be Samantha, leader of the Screws gang. I never thought I would be anyone big or important. I didn't used to think I was special at all, and I ran away as soon as things got tough. But you changed me. Whenever I got scared and thought of running away, I just saw your back as you kept going, even when everything around you looked like it was falling apart. It's thanks to you that we've gotten so far." Even Metabee with all his charisma was at a loss for words.

"W-well…. I don't think that… Heck Ikkster they're right. Maybe you can't see it now but you've kept everybody going. DC's just about reached his limit of how much he can push himself and Leo's finding it tricky to keep up the pace to. Akkia isn't too effective here and even the tamers looked like they were out if it wasn't for this two day break. You're the only one who's kept going at full steam for this whole time. We're all counting on you. Our hopes and dreams are all resting on your back. We just have to take one look at you and we feel safe, you dig?" Ikki stared at them all in silence, tears welling up behind his eyes.

"Don't get teary eyed boss!" Windstorm yelled. "This is the point where you're meant to say something short to wrap this all up!" Ikki wiped away the tears with the back of his hand.

"Th-thanks guys… I thought I was useless here, but it looks like I was wrong... Alright, no more emotional stuff until the fights over alright! Let's all do this!" Ikki extended his hand in front of him, while Koji put his on top of that, with Samantha's on top. "Let's robattle, for everyone here! Let's go out there, and _win!_" Clapping sounded behind them again. They followed the sound to see Akkia, Aokshi close behind.

"Bravo, looks like you've figured out the lesson I was trying to teach you."

"What lesson? You barely even did anything here!" Metabee yelled. "Heck, all I can remember was seeing Aokshi get sent flying in that weird musician village!"

"Are you sure? I agreed to be your coach, not another member of the team. I already knew what kind of dangers the digital world held, which is specifically why I brought you here."

"Wait, what? You knew how tough this place was?!" Ikki screamed. "We were risking our _lives _here, why did you agree to take us with Hiro?"

"It was the only way to strengthen the medals of your Medabots as well as teach you an important lesson. If you're trumped in power, don't give up just yet. It's okay to connive and plot and plan and be sneaky to try and win as long as you follow the rules, but you'll never get the chance to if you don't give up. Digimon are stronger than Medabots, so they give you a good understanding of your own limitations, and how you can break them. I got lucky with DC and Chrome finding Shoutmon, cause that doubled up the never give up vibe, so long as you're not stupid about it like those three."

"So why couldn't you just tell us and actually train us like a normal person?" Samantha screamed.

"If I just chose to train you there was no way I was going to manage to train your medabots enough to match up to our opponents. You had to get used to fighting people where you're totally outclassed, because that's how you're gonna feel when you go back to the tournament."

"That sounded suspiciously like an insult," Koji grumbled.

"Take it however you want," Akkia said, shrugging her shoulders. "Whatever the case, I suggest getting some rest. We've got a big day coming up…"

. . .

The Legend Army fortress loomed in front of them, its image scarred into the eyes of those approaching. The fortress was massive, its enormous size by far dwarfing even Ceresmon. It had to be at least ten kilometres wide and five high, but with how massive it was Ikki found it hard to tell. It looked like a gigantic dome in structure, with gigantic cannons sticking out of the exterior every ten or so metres, the barrel of each cannon being large enough to fit three people together with room to spare. Vents angled to the ground rimmed the saucer, blue flames occasionally shooting out of them. It honestly didn't look like it was possible to break into it and the whole group could feel the hope rapidly draining from their hearts.

The location of the fortress wasn't something to be sneezed at either. It sat atop a large cliff face, a river running next to it, dropping off into a torrential waterfall. Boulders and rocks filled the area it was on and the ground they would stand on would be difficult to move on if they were using anything on wheels. Another cliff with a waterfall was behind the fortress, making it impossible to attack but from the air.

Large saucers similar to the ones that attacked medaropolis (though none on quite the scale of the flagship they destroyed) flew through the sky menacingly, circling the behemoth of a fortress aggressively. Nobody really cared about those, it was just that nobody could take their eyes off of that fortress. Suddenly Ikki felt all of the confidence he came with rapidly leaving his body. Everybody was gathered together at a cliff opposite the fortress, the growth on in being the polar opposite of the scarcity of life on the other one. Ceresmon was inside the Xros Loader to keep her hidden while Knightmon was out to discuss tactics.

"Hey, can we seriously beat this thing?" Ikki nervously asked.

"Of course not," Hiro said. "It's made of Chrome Digizoid armour, with a titanium undercoating. Whoever made this has money to spare. All we have to do is get inside and beat the leaders. Any fragments we meet have to be defeated. So what's the best point of attack?"

"Not head on, that's for sure!" Leo said. "We have to find a way to get them out of their comfort zone. Knightmon, do you have in your army?"

"We're knights not grenadiers, we have no bombs ourselves. However, this is close to Prince Mamemon's territory and he too is mobilizing. Reinforcements will arrive shortly with more explosives than possibly the entire Legend Army combined."

"Good, then this plan will work. We'll need to utilize the skies. The air is where they have the advantage, so if we can disrupt it…" DC nodded his head at everything they said almost as if he was paying attention.

"Yes, yes, interesting plan… But can we hurry up and go battle? If we wait any longer than this they're gonna spot us…"

"Where you paying attention?" Akkia snapped in irritation. "If you don't follow the plan they'll chew you to pieces!"

"I know I know, sorry…"

"Alright, don't bother trying to understand all the small details. Just make PunkLilymon and add Chrome to the fusion. You'll go by sky with Windstorm, Queen Bee, ShineGreymon and Stingmon. Hold them off until you hear the signal. Clear?"

"Clear!" DC yelled. He wasn't going to risk her wrath by asking what the signal was. "You can count on me!" Akkia then turned to Ikki.

"Ikki, you'll need to stay here with Ceresmon. Have Metabee use a Medaforce Type 3 attack when we're approaching the fortress. I've got an idea on how to break in…" Ikki nodded his head affirmatively, him and Metabee moving forward to Ceresmon's head, next to the smaller Ceresmon Medium.

DC held up his Digivice, letting out Shoutmon, Etemon, Lilymon, Elecmon, Stingmon and Ceresmon in one go. "Let's do this guys! **Lilymon, Shoutmon, Etemon, Elecmon, DigiXros!**" The digimon all shot into the air, the fusion forming above their heads. Her red guitar materialized in her hands.

PunkLilymon formed, landing on the floor gracefully. Chrome materialised next to her in a fit of blue sparks.

"Now, PunkLilymon, Chrotojil, DigiXros!" The two combined, Chrome transforming into a gigantic rocket launcher with three gigantic barrels instead of two.

"**Xros Up PunkLilymon!**" She strapped the launcher onto her back before shooting into the air, followed by Agumon, Agumon digivolving in mid-air into ShineGreymon. DC looked at Stingmon who looked back.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to suddenly betray you. Not after seeing all the baby digimon in Primary Village…"

"I was never suspecting you," DC said. "What made you think that? If I did think you would I wouldn't let Queen Bee fly with me either. She used to be one of the Five Immortals, super strong Medabots in charge of… Well, blowing stuff up on the Legend Army."

"Head of offensive operations and aviation," Queen Bee said in a bored tone, stretching out her limbs. "Basically, leave defending the skies to me, I can outfly all of them combined." Queen Bee shot into the air, her wings vibrating rapidly.

"There she goes, totally ignoring me again, even though I'm the one who beat her the first time," Windstorm grumbled before flying up after them. Stingmon launched up after them, DC grabbing onto his shoulder to go up with him.

"Be careful up there," Akkia whispered.

. . .

DC stared behind him at the group that remained behind, watching them mount Ceresmon's back as she prepared to take off.

_It looks like we're finally coming to the final bout aren't we... This battle is gonna be a tough one, I can't let my guard down for a second!_

"Hey, DC, are you alright?" Lilymon asked in concern. DC snapped back to attention at the sound of her voice.

"Huh? Uh, yeah I'm fine. Let's do this!" The Fortress came closer into view, hatches already opening to release Digimon and Medabots, all flying up to meet them. Crates filled with more enemies fell from the saucers in the skies along with laser beams from every direction. "Lilymon, we're going all out from the start!"

"Right! **King the Fusion!**" An immense lion aura built up around her body, nullifying all of the lasers and missiles that came their way. Windstorm transformed her whole body into a gigantic Shuriken, slicing apart all the enemies that came her way.

"Lilymon, Windstorm, **Demo-Fusion attack!**" Lilymon's guitar shrunk to the size of a pen, disappearing inside her sleeve as she pulled the rocket launcher off her back. Windstorm slotted herself inside it as she took careful aim at the enemies below.

"**Demolition Fusion!" **She fired, the blast hurtling through the air, destroying waves of Air Pteras on its way towards the Fortress. The attack impacted, an enormous mushroom cloud explosion going off as Windstorm flew back to Lilymon's side, unfolding back to her normal form.

"Two easy! Did we get them?" Windstorm shouted energetically. The dust from the explosions cleared to reveal the fortress in perfect condition, not a single scratch on it. "Whoa! This thing's got some thick armour!" DC furrowed his brow in thought.

"We can't harm the actual fortress because of that chrome digi stuff, but it's still possible to break through somehow… If everybody was here then we could hit it with combined attacks from all the mega levels but…" Stingmon veered sharply to the right, avoiding a howling missile, the projectile just narrowly missing DC's head, whistling past to explode against Windstorm. Windstorm flew through the explosion, rage clear in her eyes as she hacked apart two more Femjets. A swarm of Reapermons accompanied by smaller Stingmons surrounded her, swinging their scythes menacingly. Lilymon roared a battle cry, crushing a Reapermon's face with the rocket launcher.

"Alright, now _that's _what I'm talking about!" DC yelled. "Now, switch to local combat mode!" The Rocket launcher vibrated, Lilymon's eyes flashing yellow momentarily as the gun disassembled itself, forming around Lilymon's fists.

"This could work! Alright, now let's try this on for size!" PunkLilymon flew around from enemy to enemy, punching them in the face, guts, back, arm, and just about anywhere she could get her fists on. ShineGreymon darted from enemy to enemy, slicing them apart with glowing blue claws before generating a fireball in his hands.

"**Glorious, Burst!**" he yelled, burning five Medabots to the ground in one go. Windstorm flew up to DC, her sword covered in machine oil.

"This isn't working, there's just plain too many of them!" she cried. "Where are those reinforcements that are-" Her words were cut short as a whole flurry of bombs exploded in the higher cliff face, exploding in sequence all the way across it, through the waterfall included. As if setting off a chain reaction, the explosions continued down, moving in a path towards the fortress. Bombs exploded in sequence all around the fortress, rocks getting flung into the air with each explosion. What could only be described as an army of metal pacman with arms and legs jumped out from above the waterfall, tossing bombs down below. Explosions boomed around them, the whole battlefield turning into complete chaos. A flag materialised above them, the bottom right corner showing the Shoutmon flag while the top left corner showed a smiley face. Another metal ball jumped forward, this one wearing a black leather jacket and blue cap, two baseball bats in its hands.

"Mamemon army, advance!" it bellowed, a whole assortment of various Mamemons leaping or flying forward, some spitting lightning, others breathing fire, and others still holding enormous guns. The fortress cannons angled up, firing at the coming attackers.

"**NOOOWW!" **A voice boomed. More explosions went off, these ones from lower than even the fortress, from the cliff face it was resting on. The whole cliff began trembling as if a violent earthquake were racking it.

"I get it, if we're not strong enough to break through the fortresses defences, then we completely remove their battlefield!" DC exclaimed. "We do know that we can destroy the very ground they stand on, so with this we take them down a level to our ground. If we're lucky, the impact of falling such a distance will force open an entrance!" The fortress began its descent down the cliff to the ground, its cannons firing in every way possible, members of the Mamemon army getting blasted back with cannon fire.

"Like I'll allow that!" Queen Bee yelled with a snarl. Two Reapermon flew her way, only to find Queen Bee's stingers in their torsos. With no questions asked, the Reapermons flew in front of the Mamemon army, stopping all the projectiles that were heading towards them like living shields. Queen Bee screamed in rage as she grabbed a missile, hurling it back towards the fortress. Explosions lit up the sky in every possible direction.

The fortress crashed into the ground, landing with a resounding crash, the sound vibrating through their very bones. DC held up his Xros Loader with an evil grin, seeing the flat ground below. He held out his Xros Loader before him.

"Reload, **Xros Heart Army!**" All of the Chessmons shot out of his Xros Loader, landing on the ground before the fortress with all their weapons drawn. "With bomb dudes from above and knight guys below, there's no way the enemy can possibly win right now!" With a roar, Stingmon flew down to the ground, landing next to Knightmon, Lilymon landing next to him. DC got off of Stingmon's back, his Xros Loader glowing bright. "Alright guys, this looks like the final battle. I'm not really a General or a Tamer or even a master Medafighter. Heck, I couldn't even qualify for the World Robattle Championship, but it looks like I've gotten this power of the Xros Loader anyway. I've gotten this power for a reason and I know what it is. I have it to clear a path for those who can change the world!"

"Clear… a path?" Knightmon asked in confusion.

"Yeah. No matter how hard I try I'm not the hero here. I'm not the main character, and if I try to be that I'll just end up hurting others and myself. What I am though is there to cleave a path for the people who are, the people who have the strength to change the world." DC turned around to face the army. "So guys, I know I'm not fit to command you all, but I'm just asking that you'll lend me your swords and cut open the road, so that the others can charge forwards!" Lilymon placed her hand, small but firm on his shoulder, tightening her grip on it until it almost hurt. DC looked up into her clear blue eyes.

_Dude, don't start this again, _Chrome's voice said in his head. _Being strong or heroic, or even just a leader, who cares about all of that?_

_Yeah! _Shoutmon added. _You're also going in with the rest to! Don't talk like you're gonna die here, you're the great General that saved my village, there's no way I can let you die!_

_The little dude's right, _Etemon added. _I haven't been with you for long, but I can tell you're just trying to make an excuse if you mess up, saying you're not meant to be a hero. Don't joke about that, you're the most rocking out guy I've met!_

_And you give me chocolates! _Elecmon added. _So I have to keep you safe to get more chocolates!_

"The point is," Lilymon finally said with her own mouth. "None of us care about whether you think you're meant to be a hero or not, forget all of that, and let's do this!"

"Aw man, even you shut down my awesome speech," DC grumbled. "But you're right, I shouldn't get moody for nothing. And besides, my speech kinda sucked… So forget all that, let's just get out there and show the Legend Army what happens if they think they can do as they please! Who's with me?" A tidal wave of voices cheered out "aye!" at once as DC raised his fist in the air. He tilted his cap backwards. "Alright guys, we're gonna totally rearrange their army until Ikki and those guys are ready, let's go!"

. . .

The fighting below raged on, bombs and explosions going off in the sky like deadly fireworks, their discharge causing more harm than enjoyment. Ikki stood at the end of Ceresmon as she soared through the sky, hidden from view below by the clouds. Metabee was next to him, stretching out his limbs, the usual screeching of metal gone after the thorough check-up. Windstorm shot up through the cloud barrier, a few dents in her armour but nothing serious.

"The battle's going as Akkia predicted it," she said. "On foot we're making no progress at all, the fighting's at a stalemate, but in the air its total chaos. Their forces are concentrated on Queen Bee. She's… She's a monster!"

"So we're losing?" Metabee exclaimed. "How is that a good thing?"

"They're the distraction," Akkia said. "They probably know that though so they're expecting the real attack anytime soon. Our secret weapons… Takato and Takuya."

"Are those two really that strong?" Ikki asked. "They looked just like any other tamers to me…" Akkia shook her head.

"Far from it. Those two are on a whole other level. You know about the Ten Days of Darkness correct? Well, it wasn't just Medabots attacking then either. A threat from the Digital World was encroaching as well. Where there were no Medabots there was D-Reaper, a programme bent on deleting the entire human world. D-Reaper's influence helped cause malfunctions in the Medabots limiter function. You could say that D-Reaper was the antennae that transmitted the ten days of darkness. When Henry finally stopped the chaos, there still would have been more fighting, but Takato was the one who stopped it with his friends. They defeated a threat capable of deleting the entire planet within a matter of days. He's no ordinary tamer, he's one of many with the title of 'The Digidestined.'"

"And Takato?"

"He basically killed a digimon version of the devil," Akkia stated almost like a matter of fact.

"What?!"

"This isn't the time for a history lesson, just wait here patiently. Your turn is about to come…"

. . .

"Impossible, the others were just a decoy!" Zorin yelled. "Their real attack was just these two monsters!"

Legend Army digimon fell left and right, so much deceased data filling the air a permanent red mist filled the battlefield. Gallantmon and Aldamon stood shoulder to shoulder, opposing them being the child with the Zorin, all of his Kuwagata Medabots alongside him. Reapermons all stood behind him, their scythe's snapped.

Aldamon leaped into the fray, slicing apart hordes of digimon with his claws, five enemies falling to one swoop of his claws at a time. Gallantmon leaped over him, stabbing two Reapermons through the heart before in a frenzy tossing them both to the ground, his lance sparking with blue electricity.

"**Lightning Joust!**" he screamed, tossing the growing mass of energy at the end of his lance at a swarm of approaching Femjets. Both Aldamon and Gallantmon shot into the air, flames and lightning circling them before they crashed into the ground, literally an entire wave of the earth spreading away from the impact zone, swamping and crushing all the land based Totalizers and Tankars. The kid smiled.

"I'm impressed. Two Digidestined doing so much damage on your own. A little further and you'll be right outside the fortress, and away from the bulk of the fighting."

"I'm no Digidestined, I'm just another tamer," Gallantmon said, his spear glowing blue with energy, his round shield glowing yellow.

"And I'm the Warrior of Flame, Takuya Kanbara!" Aldamon yelled, flames surrounding him. "Give it up kid, your Medabots don't stand a chance against Mega Level Digimon!" The kid smiled, his hair shifting with an ominous wind.

"You two are much more powerful than even Ikki… But unlike Ikki, you're already at the limit of your potential. As you are now, you can't defeat me."

"What're you talking about? You're almost finished right now!"

"Enough talk, I'm gonna end this!" Aldamon screamed, leaping forward, his fist heading straight for Zorin.

"Wait, Aldamon, stop!" Gallantmon yelled. "Something's not right! You're gonna!" Aldamon punched with all his might as Zorin's horns turned blue. Zorin put up his arms, stopping the blow, his feet digging into the dirt as he skidded backwards a few metres.

"What the? That attack should have smashed him to pieces!" Aldamon roared. "Then I guess I'll just have to… What? My strength…" Aldamon sunk to his knees, his arms shaking weakly. Zorin hurled him into the air, Aldamon sailing through the sky before a Sanjuuro and Rox jumped up after him, slicing him mercilessly before kicking him back to the ground.

"Looks like it finally started to take effect," the kid said. "I'm surprised it took so long for you to finally feel the effects of my antagonist power leech but it got through in the end."

"Power… leech?" Aldamon said weakly.

"It lets me drain more of your strength the more you fight. All of the energy you expended destroying my troops has just been tripled. I'll be surprised if you have the willpower to even stand up anymore."

"Don't be an idiot… I'm the Warrior of Flame… I'll always… Have the power… To fight…" Aldamon got back up on wobbly legs, flames building up around him. "**Atomic Inferno!**" Thousands of fireballs shot out of Aldamon's claws, incinerating the ground in front of him as they headed for Zorin. Rox leaped in front of Zorin, taking the full brunt of the attack, the flames roasting his circuits even from the outside. Rox collapsed as the flames died down, getting replaced with a Gigaton.

"I'll take over from here," Gallantmon said, holding up his shield. "**Shield of the Just!**" An enormous laser beam fired from the shield, Gigaton trying to block it with his own shield. The beam refracted around Gigaton's shield in the full spectrum of light, the shield shattering as he to shut down. "You see? You can't actually beat us! I hate violence more than anything, if you give up here we won't harm you or any of your subordinates!"

"I don't think I can trust your word on that one," the boy said, pulling out a Darkness Loader. Another army of Reapermon came out of it, all of them pointing their weapons menacingly at the duo. Aldamon clicked his fingers as walls of fire beat the enemies back away from them.

"These guys aren't too strong on their own," he said. "But together they're really a handful..."

"If only we had the two Tai's and all the others with us," Gallantmon said. "Where is Taiki anyway?"

"That doesn't matter too much, all that matters is that we hold the line here so the others can get on with the real mission…"

. . .

"Ikki, it's time," Akkia said. Everybody now, not just Ikki, had gathered near the front of the Ceresmon Mega, most of them by her neck where a rocky ridge protected them from the biting wind. Koji, Samantha, Leo, Akkia, Ryuga, Yami, Hiro, Sumilidon, Puttycat, Blackbeetle and Saikachis, Aokshi, Dorumon, BlackGatomon, Veemon... Everybody had gathered together, and standing on the head were Ikki, Metabee and Windstorm, their gaze focused ahead on the battle to come.

"I know, it feels like the time for us to show up."

"Do you remember the plan?"

"Like the back of my hand." Akkia nodded her head.

"Good. Then that means I won't have to worry about what'll happen to you." The two remained silent for a while, the only sound being the howling of the wind in their ears. Akkia looked down. Then up again, scratching her head. "Hey, this is different to the battle for Medaropolis. Back then, we were fighting to protect ourselves and our town. We were the only ones who could do it. We didn't really have much choice and it wasn't really our fault… But now, if anything happens to you… It'll all be because I thought that I was so smart."

"What do you-"

"Shut up, I'm not done talking!" Ikki's mouth snapped shut. "I thought, 'why don't we train in the digital world?' I knew Hiro was looking for strong help, and with the misunderstanding of you being framed, it looked like the perfect excuse to dive in. Still though, I didn't know it would be like this. I didn't know it would be this bad. This is an actual war, with death and pain and suffering. It's not the place for an eleven year old to be. I didn't know what would happen. I was a terrible big sister, as always. Leaving you alone for all these years, but know you're here, if anything happens…" Akkia took a deep breath to steady herself. "But you're Ikki Tenryou. Knowing you, nothing's going to happen. You're my little brother after all, if you're anything like me or dad you'll be totally fine."

"Anything like dad?" Ikki asked in confusion. Akkia shook her head, shaking off the thought.

"That's not the point. The point is…" Akkia grabbed the back of Ikki's head, bringing him closer to her. Gently, she kissed his forehead. "Even though I'm a terrible big sis, I want you to stay safe. Don't do anything stupid. If things start to go wrong, remember that I'm right behind you, there to bail you out. So don't push yourself."

"Stop it! You're embarrassing me!" Ikki yelled, squirming out of her arms. "I can't promise anything, but I'll try be careful if it'll make you feel better…" Akkia nodded her head, then looked at Samantha.

"Alright, this is the time for you to test out your Tochikan powers once and for all. Step forward." Samantha stepped forward, holding her launcher in her hand. "Hiro, you're the only one here with a Xros Code, so you'll have to use your D-3 like a Xros Loader." Hiro did the same, although without Veemon. "Now, Metabee, Windstorm, if I do this you'll gain power matching up to an Ultimate level digimon, but with how much different you two genetically are, there's no telling what'll happen. Are you ready?"

"Ready whenever!" Windstorm yelled. Metabee on the other hand had steam coming out of his horns, his face plate glowing red hot.

"Umm… Yeah I guess, but do I _really _have to do this? This is kinda awkward… Let me count to ten…"

"**Metabee!**" Ikki yelled.

"W-wait a sec-"

"**Windstorm!**" Hiro added.

"I'm not ready you hear! I'm not-" Ikki and Hiro smashed their Digivices together, Ikki holding the Darkness Loader while Hiro held his D-3.

"**DOUBLE XROS!**" they yelled, light glowing from their Digivices. Windstorm shot into the air, engulfed in a dark purple aura while Metabee joined her, a green aura burning around him. Almost like a hypnotic dance, they circled each other before crashing together, a blazing red X shooting through them join point.

"**DOUBLE XROS!**" Both Metabee and Windstorm yelled. Windstorm flew up behind Metabee, her body joining together with his from behind, the blades on her legs attaching to Metabee's legs, her tail joining to him, fans, miniature wings and other blade like items attacking all across Metabee's torso and arms. Windstorm's head unfolded and attached itself to Metabee's, forming a helmet with holes for Metabee's head cannons. What remained of Windstorm folded up into a large shuriken that attached itself to Metabee's back and a pair of thrusters just beneath it. Finally, Windstorm's medal popped out while Metabee's hatch opened up, the two medals combining in a blinding flash of white light.

"**StormBeetle!" **he cried.

**StormBeetle: Medabot Corporation, Nae's Workshop**

**Medafighter: Ikki Tenryou**

**Specialty: High Speed combat**

**Medal Type: Spiral**

**Signature: Medaforce**

"**I am StormBeetle, the winds of change! I am the strongest Medabot in existence, period! My Positron rifle cannot be stopped by even diamond, and I can fly at Mach 5 speeds! If you still think you can dodge me, just try and evade my Demon Windmill Shuriken!"**

Metabee landed on the ground, staring at his new body in wonder.

"This is… Metabee… and Windstorm… together," Metabee said in amazement in both Windstorm and Metabee's voice together. "It's like, I can feel all of our emotions swirling and mixing up together… We're the same person right now, our thoughts and feelings are one… It feels… Good!" Ikki stared in amazement at the new Medabot.

"He wasn't kidding about being the strongest Medabot ever," Koji said, reading the data on his medawatch. "This things stats are ridiculous, and just check out his medaparts. Right arm Positron, left arm Reactor, legs moonwalk, head A-bomb, none of these are registered, nor is there anything with such ridiculous output!"

"It's not over yet," Akkia said. "Samantha, let it loose."

"Finally I get to try it!" Samantha yelled excitedly, sticking her Beyblade inside her launcher. "**Go Dragoon! Dragoon Storm Attack!**" Her Dragoon Beyblade began spinning rapidly as it landed on the ground, a massive tornado building up from it. A gigantic blue ethereal dragon emerged from within the Beyblade, roaring loud enough to even shake Ceresmon.

"Now Ikki, Xros it with Metabee!" Ikki did as he was commanded, holding up the Darkness Loader.

"Storm Beetle, Kid Dragoon, **DigiXros!**" The Beyblade shot towards StormBeetle's right arm, spinning rapidly as it did so. It crashed face first into Metabee's fist, growing into an enormous drill on his arm. The drill grew in length to thrice StormBeetle's whole body height.

"**StormBeetle, Giga Drill Mode!**"

"That's only going to work for two minutes," Hiro stated. "Medabots have medals that link them with digimon to DigiXros, but a Beyblade is linked entirely by its soul or bit-beast, it's super unstable! So with this chance, you can't afford to mess up!"

"Are we done here?" Ceresmon Medium asked, finally speaking after her long silence. "Then that means it's time to attack the Fortress, now!" Metabee stood at the very tip of Ceresmon's head, a pair of bladed wings unfurling on his back. Everybody but Metabee clutched onto the base of Ceresmon's neck as she tilted down to a steep decline, falling past layers of clouds, breaking through the fog in the skies along with the fog in their hearts. The fortress below rapidly began to rise up to them as Ceresmon picked up more and more speed, Metabee looking unfazed in the slightest, simply keeping his arms crossed.

"The whole idea behind this plan is to combine Metabee's strength with Ceresmon's right?" Ikki asked, having to shout above the roar of the wind to be heard.

"Yeah," Akkia shouted back. "You'll use the power of Dragoon and Windstorm to pierce the fortress, and the strength of Metabee and Ceresmon to push on through."

"Then that means StormBeetle isn't just a fusion of those three, it also includes Samantha's rip speed and Ceresmon's huge presence. It's a giant DigiXros with all of us!"

"Exactly! Now you're getting it!" Veemon suddenly blurted out. "DigiXros doesn't just add people's strength, it adds their hearts as well! Even if it's weaker than other fusions, it's that little extra edge it's got that makes it match up!"

Ceresmon Mega roared as she flew through the sky, ignoring the explosions around her. Enemy digimon stared in absolute horror as they saw the gargantuan titan of a digimon fall through the sky towards their fortress. Everybody was too focused on fighting all the different groups on the ground, nobody thought there would be anybody dumb enough to attempt to go for the fortress itself. Especially not with its cannons pointed their way.

DC riding on Stingmon's back flew up beside them, struggling to keep up with Ceresmon's intense speed.

"Are we going in for the big one finally?" DC roared. Lilymon flew up beside him to, her guitar gleaming in her hand.

"Who cares? Let's just go! This looks fun!" she yelled as they all landed on Ceresmon's back.

"Yeah you're right, these guys won't last a second without me will they?" DC stared up at Metabee's back, seeing the enormous drill in his hand. "On second thought, I think they'll be just fine!"

Cannon fire blasted them from below, enormous boulders crashing into Ceresmon Mega, chipping off bits of her rock armour. Both the Mega and the Medium howled in pain, but instead of slowing down they simply sped up.

"I can't let my momentum drop," Ceresmon Medium said, clutching her arm in pain, veins appearing all over her body. "Otherwise this whole plan will fail… **I will keep on going and break open a hole for you to all pass through!**"

"That's the spirit!" Metabee yelled, his drill spinning so fast it was nothing more than a blur. "I'm gonna put everything I've got into this move to!" Not just the drill, but the shuriken on his back began spinning like a tornado. "Dragoon, show me just what kind of power you've got!"

_As you wish, _a deep baritone voice said within Metabee's head. _I'll lend you the very life that was gifted to me! _Metabee jolted in surprise hearing the drill talk, before the speed of its spin nearly doubled. He roared as his whole body lit up with green flames.

"**GIGA, DRILL, BREEEEEAAAKEEEERRRR!" **he screamed as they crashed into the fortress. Ceresmon Mega's head along with the drill pierced right through the armour, followed by her whole body, breaking through layers of thick metal plates, cannons around her falling to pieces as the exterior tore itself to pieces. Earthquakes racked the ground as they all fell into a massive chamber-like room, dust and debris clouding the air they breathed.

For that short moment, everybody paused the fighting, turning in shock to see the seemingly impregnable Legend Army base broken into, with half of a Digimon sticking out of the top floor, it's wings crumbled and broken, doomed not to grace the skies again. The crash was the final signal that the battle was drawing to a close finally, that it was all going to be over.

Ikki stood up groggily, rubbing his head in pain. His whole body throbbed in pain from the force of the crash landing. Metabee still stood atop Ceresmon Mega's head, holding his drill out to the side. The drill popped off of his arm, shrinking back down to the size of a small Beyblade before shooting back to Samantha's hand. Everybody disembarked the still Mega level digimon, Ceresmon Medium staying on board, her chest heaving from the exertion, sweat running down her whole body.

"You just rest up here," StormBeetle said, pounding his fists together. "You've made a hole for us to get through, now it's our turn to finish this off." Ceresmon nodded her head weakly.

"Then… Take care…" Ceresmon smiled to herself as she shut her eyes. Metabee nodded his head, jumping off the gigantic stone bird. The chamber they had landed in was sea blue, gems hanging from the ceiling and standing upright from the ground. Everybody stood with their partners in front of them, Metabee joining Ikki's side in the middle to complete the group. Slow, methodical clapping could be heard from the opposite end of the room. A solitary man sat at the end of the room, clapping deliberately slowly at the arrival of his new guests.

"Bravo. Bravo. You've really outdone yourself this time, I have to admit. I'm impressed you made it this far. The strength of your dreams, your fortitude riding on your hopes and courage, I truly commend that. In fact, I feel I may even have to reward it!"

"We're not here to get Christmas presents!" Leo yelled. "Who are you anyway? If you're who I think you are then surrender now! We've invaded your whole fortress, you're surrounded. If you keep up any more meaningless fighting you'll just end up increasing the casualties on both sides!"

"Oh don't worry, I don't intend to continue this fight any longer," the man said with a laugh. "In fact, I intend to end it right now with your defeat. As for who I am, if you haven't already guessed it, I am one of the few remaining pure blooded Tochikans in existence. Shocked that there's another one? I believe that I am one of only two along with Samantha. For _I_ am the _Leader_ of the Legend Army."


	31. Deja Vu

**Dang me and typing way way way too much! Or maybe I just got impatient and hosted what I've got so far instead of waiting till the end? Anyway, pay **_**really really **_**close attention to the end of this chapter. I can now guaranteed promise that the next chapter is the end of the Digi-World Arc (I'll miss you Digital World…) I've got to get back to the tournament. Anyway, time to PIERCE THE HEAVENS WITH MY WRITING (which still has a ways to go but WHATEVER!)!**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**THIS…**

_**IS**_**…..**

**SPIIIIIRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!**

**Chapter 31: Déjà vu**

"I am the leader of the Legend Army." The man was dressed in a purple tuxedo with black vertical stripes running all down it. His spinach green hair was slicked back with an abundance of grease. A thin white scar ran all the way down from his right ear to his lip, stopping where the smile on his face began.

"You're the leader of the Legend Army?" DC yelled, clenching his Xros Loader angrily.

"I was kinda expecting some whole Darth Vader kind of guy with a mask and scary theme music and everything," Ikki said in disappointment. "But it's just a regular looking businessman.

"No, there's nothing regular about this guy," StormBeetle said, the shuriken on his back spinning excitedly. "There's a weird kind of energy around him that I don't really understand. It's like he has his own evil aura around him or something.

"I hardly think calling me evil is very fair," he said. "I wish to revive the Tochikan race, is there anything that's wrong with that?"

"Don't try and lie to us," Samantha screamed. "All you really care about is trying to bring Ziz back to life isn't it? You're just a messed up psychopath who's totally bent in the mind!"

"Don't talk to my father like that!" a familiar female voice called. A massive chunk of the wall to their left opened up like a secret door, the violet haired girl walking in. "He's a great man with a vision that we'd all give our lives for!"

"Wait a second, he's your _father?!_" Leo yelled in shock.

"He raised me when all the others had abandoned me," she said. "He's the only person in the world who accepted me, not even my own biological parents understood. He raised who I am today, and therefore he's my father!"

"Oh that's a relief," DC said, wiping the sweat off of his brow. "For a second I thought there was another pure blooded Tochikan out there. You're probably kind of a mix then. We're good." The girl snarled at him. In the space of a split-second she'd already tackled him, sending them both to the ground, her, fist held up above his face.

"Don't talk to me like I'm some kind of animal! I'm also human! And yet you humans won't even accept me!" Even as she said this her skin began changing before their very eyes, becoming purple hued and tough, becoming scaled instead, almost like a snake. PunkLilymon pointed her rocket launcher at her, but almost as soon as she yanked it off of her back she was already gone, standing by her father's side.

"Behave Nell, they aren't as weak as you might think. An attack like that will not go so favourably for you next time."

"Yes father," she said ashamedly.

"Legend boss huh?" PunkLilymon said as she stepped forward. "We've all got a bone to pick with you. Why did you attack my home village? We had nothing to do with you or your war. We lived in peace. We were _musicians_, and yet here we are fighting as soldiers. Why? Why did you have to go and kill so many innocents? Why did you have to do _this _to Leomon?" She gestured at her Elecmon cloak.

"Your village was a small price to pay for the good of many when my dream comes to fruition."

"No, don't start this generic movie garbage!" Ryuga yelled. "We don't care for your dream, or your opinions on what's worth more, we're asking _why _you attacked it!"

"We needed the resources to proceed, and your village was in the way of our ground troops. Removing it would have gotten those resources, and prevented out troops from having to march around it. That plan admittedly was not as successful."

"So you really didn't need to wipe the place off the face of the world!" DC shouted back. "I don't want to keep this conversation going any longer! Nell, don't listen to this man anymore! He's deceiving you all! He's not trying to revive the Tochikans! Why would he care if the Tochikans lived or died? He's simply using your power to his own ends! Stop listening to him and escape!"

"Do you seriously think I would believe your lies?" she laughed at them. "He's not manipulating me, I'm willingly letting him use my powers! Anything to repay the debt I owe him for saving my life!"

"She's too far gone," Ikki said. "There's no point in trying to convince her of anything with no proof. If I was her I wouldn't believe us either. We just have to do things the way we always have."

"I'm guessing that means it's time to get the big guns out!" Akkia said, cracking her knuckles in preparation. The Legend Army boss laughed to himself.

"Did you honestly think it would be that easy?" he said. He pushed a button on the arm of his chair. A series of doors the same size as the one Nell entered through opened all along the chamber edges. Through all of the doors, six massive digimon entered, the floor beneath their feet rumbling with each step that they took.

"Oooh boy, this doesn't look good," StormBeetle said, materialising a katana in his right hand.

"Behold, the seven vaccine busters, the Superior Seven!" Ikki stared them all down, already trying to calculate methods to fight them with. The first one was a tall giant of a digimon with black skin and two grey cables criss-crossing over his chest. A grey metal draconic helmet shaped almost like a dragon skull was slotted over his head, red eyes peering out from the holes in it. Large black claws were on its arms, the blades looking strong enough to slice through boulders with ease, and possibly people.

"That over there is BlackWarGyemon," DexDorumon said. "Any digimon with 'dra' in its name is finished against it. Veedramon can't even hope to match up to it." Opposite him was arguably the largest digimon of them all, a gigantic dragon on all fours covered from head to tail in black armour with gold claws coming from his foreleg gauntlets, high over its natural white claws. A gigantic hole that was probably some kind of weapon was on its back and its scales were all black. Its eyes were glowing deep red and it's white hair seemed to add to its evil appearance.

"BImperialdramon," Agumon added. "Not a fun sight. Its physical power is beyond ridiculous. Speed and technique is the way to go." Three more titans appeared, one looking like a blue and purple version of Gallantmon, another like a blue Aldamon, and the last being a humanoid black dragon digimon, with blood red rings, grey shoulder pads and a metal helmet, snarling angrily at them.

"ChaosGallantmon and a variant of Aldamon," Veemon said. "ChaosGallantmon is the same class as ChaosAlphamon so he's likely our biggest threat right now. The evil Aldamon shouldn't be too tough compared to him but you've still got to be careful. The weakest link here right now is Cyberdramon, supposed to be an evil version of Arresterdramon. Just stay far away from its claws and you should be safe." The Legend Army head smiled.

"Do you like my soldiers?" he asked. "They were all lost and alone. Some rampaging and destroying, others fleeing and hiding. All of them had nowhere that they could call home. That is, not until I took them in under the banner of the Legend Army, to conquer this world and remove the unjust rule of the tyrants who refused to accept them. Indeed, that is what I have always done. Each of my young Generals and Agents that you have battled so far lived in dreadful conditions, extreme poverty, hated and neglected, abandoned by those they trusted, or had their loved ones killed, simply because of who they were. Who they had no choice to be. _Tochikans! _Not even pure bloods like Samantha and I either. I wanted to build a new future for them where the humans that cast them aside would be purged, and Tochikans and the few humans who accepted them could live in peace!"

"So you'll accomplish that by blowing everything up first?" Ikki yelled. "That doesn't even sound right in my head! At least Dr Meta-Evil might have actually made a better future for Medabots in the short run, but what you're doing will annihilate everybody, _especially _if you revive Ziz!" Nell looked at her father with a raised eyebrow.

"These fools are insulting your dream again. I don' even know what Ziz is, and I don't care either. You would have told us if it were right to tell us, correct?"

"That is correct, Nell darling," he said with a smile. "These children don't understand the glory of what we are trying to achieve. Remove them at once."

"Yes father," she said with an evil smile. "First five of the Superior Seven, attack!" The gigantic digimon charged, the Medafighters immediately rapidly stepping backwards as all of the digimon and tamers Digivolved or Bio-Merged, Ryuga staying unfused as he decided who to fuse with. ChaosAlphamon grabbled with ChaosGallantmon, both of them crashing through the chamber walls into an adjacent chamber. ShineGreymon got tackled to the ground by BlackWargreymon before a gigantic fireball from the enormous dragon-like Imperialdramon blew him to a chamber below.

"I had these rooms specially made for confronting you all," the Legend Army boss said. "I always believed you would make it here. It's such a shame that you don't want to join my side though. Farewell." The black Aldamon and Cyberdramon stood before the remaining group, their fists clenched and covered with fire.

"Metabee, Shadow Sword to the smaller one!" Ikki yelled.

"You to Sumilidon!" Koji added. The two medabots sprinted forwards, Metabee now sprouting the same kind of claws as Sumilidon. Fireballs flew towards them, but the pair merely deflected them all with their blades before leaping forwards. Aldamon stepped between them, blocking them with an enormous blue cyclone. Samantha placed her Beyblade inside its launcher, ripping it out with enough force to generate a small cyclone around herself.

"Dragoon Storm Attack!" she yelled, the large blue spectral dragon appearing out of the tornado. Aldamon fired more fireballs, all of them disappearing before they could even touch Dragoon.

Saikachis, Blackbeetle, you join them to!" Leo yelled into his medawatch. "Use the Prominence, Blackbeetle support from behind with laser cannons! Angle all medaparts upward forty-five degrees, Quick flash style!"

"Aokshi, let's get serious for once to!" Akkia added. "Use the Quick flash to your advantage and use a Red Blaze through it!" Lightning arced between Saikachis's horns before he fired a gigantic flaming blast at Aldamon. Aldamon put his hand up, stopping the attack with ease before Metabee and Sumilidon slashed through the attack, the whole blast exploding like fireworks in his hand. The whole chamber flashed bright white, red flares occasionally adding to the intense light before fading away, Aldamon covered in burns that even his own flame covered body couldn't stop. Cybderdramon roared angrily, slashing his claws around violently, tearing massive chunks through Metabee and Sumilidon.

**Warning, Metabee right arm at 45% damage, head at 60% damage. Sumilidon identical stats.**

"We can't get too close to these two," Metabee said. "They're brawlers at nature. We need long ranged combat. In that case…"

"PunkLilymon, fire at will!" DC yelled. PunkLilymon already had the enormous yellow rocket launcher mounted on her shoulder, firing three missiles at once towards the awaiting digimon.

"**Rock n' Roller!**" a voice cried, the explosion going off early as a black streak shot right through it. The black streak stopped, the sight making DC catch his breath.

"What the heck? How's that possible?" he asked in shock. The enemy digimon smiled.

"What's so surprising to see a BlackShoutmon?" he asked, his mic gleaming as he beat it against his hand. "Yeah that's right, I'm the last digimon the Legend Army was looking for, the one who was initially a BlackOmnimon, returned as a Shoutmon after my tragic death. I'll always be where there are tough opponents, and joining the Legend Army was the fastest way to find them! So tell me, are you guys tough?"

"What the heck does this copy-cat think he's doing?!" PunkLilymon roared angrily, pointing her Shoutmon cannon at him. "There's only enough room for one rocker here! **Hendrix Cannon!**" A large red fireball shot out of the cannon, shredding the ground to pieces as it travelled towards BlackShoutmon. He jumped out of the way effortlessly, the attack passing right next to him as it crashed just to the right of the throne itself. He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Loser, I know there's a Shoutmon somewhere inside there!" he taunted. "If you're really a man or a mon, then fight me on your own! Relying on a girl to fight for you is the sign of the weak!"

"Like I'll listen to your taunts!" PunkLilymon laughed. "We're the Dark Network, we'll fight together as one no matter the-" The fusion split before they could even finish, all of the involved digimon falling to the ground in a heap. Shoutmon stood before them, clutching his mic tightly.

"What did you just call me?" Shoutmon yelled.

"Yo, Shoutmon buddy, just what do you think you're trying to pull?" Etemon asked. "It's all fine and dandy if you wanna fight so badly, but don't forget you're up against Mega Levels here, they'll chew you out in a second if you're on your own!"

"Exactly, what do you think you're doing?" DC yelled. Ikki rubbed his temples in concentration.

"Okay, Shoutmon can probably handle his evil self just fine. Metabee, I want you to cover him with missiles, don't let Aldamon or Cyberdramon get close to him."

"Right on Ikki, just leave it all to me!" Metabee yelled, firing two seeker missiles already towards the two larger digimon. Explosions went off above the two combating Shoutmons, both of them clashing their weapons.

"Argh, you stupid idiot!" DC yelled. "Fine, Shoutmon back off and go long range." Shoutmon leaped backwards, avoiding a wildly aimed swing of the enemy mic. He charged up a burning red note shaped fireball in his hand.

"**Rock Damashi!**" he screamed, hurling it at the black Shoutmon. His enemy did the same, hurling his own fireball back.

"**Rocky Fastball!**" he yelled as he chucked his, the two exploding between the two of them, forming a black and red burning treble clef in the air.

"**Rowdy Rocker!**"

"**Rock n' Roller!**" They both crashed their microphones against each other, smashing them again and again, Shoutmon more out of anger and rage than anything while his opponent looked like he was in a proper martial arts stance. They both separated.

"I'm impressed you've kept up with my movements so far," BlackShoutmon said.

"Me to, you're pretty strong!" Shoutmon added. The black Shoutmon narrowed his eyes, his expression becoming unnaturally serious.

"However, it's you who doesn't know what you're doing…" A series of hatches opened up from the ground, six cages rising up from its depths. A wolf like digimon, a gigantic beetle Medabot, what looked like a star with arms and legs, what looked like an overweight RiseGreymon with a mechanical claw instead of gun, a flaming bird, and a yellow jet-like medabot all in each cage, screaming to be let out.

"Oh dear, this won't end well," Hiro said. "Check out those Digimon. Dorulumon, Ballistamon, Classic Starmon, RiseGreymon, Birdramon, Sparrowmon… All of the ingredients for that monster are together…"

"What's with the grim face?" Ikki asked. "We've got them on the ropes, we're winning!"

"Yeah, but not for long!" Nell held up a Darkness Loader, the jaws on the Digivice opening up.

"BlackShoutmon, all caged digimon, **Forced DigiXros!**" she yelled. The cages ripped open, all of the digimon flying towards BlackShoutmon as he absorbed them all. BlackShoutmon roared angrily as he grew twenty feet tall, maybe even larger, even taller than ShineGreymon. He was gaining the same set up as DexShoutmon, only with more digimon involved now. Pitch black meda-energy dripped off of the digimon as it formed, burning holes in the ground. The blue and red metal beetle digimon's head appeared on its right shoulder, the orange and white wolf appearing on its left. It's large torso was completely black, a dark purple V on its chest. Four mechanical wings sprouted from its back, Risegreymon's spokes poking out from behind. RiseGreymon's legs also oddly enough stuck out of his right shoulder, now completely mechanised to be black, and two enormous purple blades stuck out of his left. He gained a similar helmet to DexShoutmon's, only this one was purple with a silver X in front of his eyes.

"**BlackShoutmon, X7!**" he screamed, a gigantic version of his mic appearing in his hand, the sound of gongs ringing behind him.

"Ooooooh boy," Hiro said, his face looking crestfallen.

"Wha-what the heck is that thing?!" Ikki screamed in shock.

"That's… That's a X7 class digimon," Hiro said. "Its strength stretches just beyond Mega Level… As we are now, we stand no chance of defeating it. Even with the powers of Lilithmon and UlforceVeedramon, that thing is strong enough to go solo against the toughest of Royal Knight digimon."

"So what're we supposed to do?" Koji asked.

"We're supposed to survive, that's all. Survive and wait for the others…"

. . .

Ryuga covered his face from the rising clouds of dust as ShineGreymon was tossed around the room, barely getting any breathing room. ChaosAlphamon also didn't look any better, clashing gigantic blades with the blue knight's lance.

"Hey Ryuga, any ideas?" Shinegreymon asked, blocking a gigantic flaming ball of fire that crashed against him.

"Not sure, we're triple teamed here. It's gonna be hard being split up from the others."

"Hah! It's over for you all!" ChaosGallantmon said. "Your friends are facing off against our prodigious young rookie! Back in the day he was the strongest of us all. Now he's still at the same level we're at, they're as good as dead!"

"I don't think so," Ryuga yelled, struggling to keep his voice heard over the sound of crashing walls and tearing metal. "I believe in the people I've left behind. If I thought they didn't have what it takes I would have sent them back. They'll pull through, and they're counting on me to do the same!" ChaosGallantmon laughed.

"Sure, good luck with that," he said, charging up a blue energy blast at the end of his lance. "You don't even have your secret weapons, the digidestined. What were your strategists thinking bringing you in here without one?" Ryuga smiled.

"We needed them to keep your forces from outside from getting in, especially that annoying Zorin kid. Now that we're in here-"

"You're right where we want you!" BlackWargreymon roared, charging up an enormous fireball above his head. "**Terra Destroyer!**" He hurled the massive thing, ShineGreymon screaming in pain as he was engulfed. "You see that? You're losing! You stand no chance against us! Give up now while you can!" ShineGreymon began laughing to himself, standing back up even with all of the burns covering his body. BlackWargreymon edged away nervously. ShineGreymon began cackling maniacally.

"No, you're right where _we _want you!" he roared. "I can't believe you seriously fell for it!"

"What's so funny? I'm confused." Ryuga ignored him completely, closing his eyes as he clutched his Digivice tightly. A calm wind blew around him.

"Dorumon, are you ready?" he asked. ChaosAlphamon nodded his head. "It's time… Now that we're away from the others we don't have to worry about hurting them. Let's go, beyond mega." He held his Digivice to his heart, his body tearing to pieces as he floated into the air, looking more like a spirit than a human. ChaosAlphamon also degenerated to Dorumon, the two of them fusing together.

"**Dorumon Bio-Merge to…**" Together, the two of them Digivolved up to ChaosAlphamon again, their armour clanking and fusing together, melding more and more to hide all the cracks in their armour. A large metal plate appeared over their chest, a lightsabre materialising in their hand. "**ChaosAlphamon, Sith Mode!**"

"Wait, what the f-" Before ChaosGallantmon could finish his sentence, a red flash shout through the air, Gallantmon's legs getting separated from his body. ChaosAlphamon turned around, his lightsabre pulsing with power, leaping through his foe too fast to be seen again, shredding him down again and again and again with each attack. ChaosGallantmon's pieces floated through the air for a second before Alphamon clicked his fingers, each piece exploding like fireworks. Imperialdramon and BlackWargreymon stared slack jawed at their fallen companion, taking a step back.

"As if I'd ever let you!" ShineGreymon roared, charging up a blast of fire himself. "**Glorious Burst!**" he screamed, bathing his foes in fire. ChaosAlphamon extended his hand, adding purple lightning to the fire, the two attacking from both side, sending their enemies to their knees. ChaosAlphamon screamed, Dorumon and Ryuga's voice sounding together.

"**Cruel Impulse!**" they cried, the very air in front of them compressing, sending their foes somersaulting backwards until they crashed into the wall, twitching in shock and pain.

"Ryuga, Dorumon, don't overdo it," ShineGreymon said, clenching his fist tightly.

"Yeah I know," Ryuga said. "Now let's finish this before they can get a second chance to attack!" They both charged forward, clenching their fists tightly, mere moments away from the end of two more of their enemies, their minds too focused on the foe before them to worry about Ikki and the others…

. . .

"Metabee, get out of there!" Ikki screamed.

"Run awaaaay!" Metabee yelled, flying far out of reach of the angry X7's microphone. C7 spun his microphone angrily, smashing it down on them all. Ulforce Veedramon stepped in the way, blocking the mic with his arms before Lilithmon flew up above him, slinging black orbs of energy. Aldamon flew above them all, spitting flames all over the battlefield. Dragoon spun just in front of them all, his tornado stopping the fire before it could reach the humans below.

"Wow this battle's getting hot!" DC said, wiping the sweat off of his brow. Chrome, I don't suppose you're up for another round yet are you?" Chrome twitched, his head jerkily shaking no as his medal cooled off. "I thought so. Rest up there, I'm gonna need you for the Legend Boss himself, if he'll **stop sending lackeys after us and fight like a man!**" DC yelled intentionally loudly. "Hiro, isn't there a way to DigiXros up to this guy's level and beat him?" Hiro shook his head.

"No, that guy's far above our current level. We can't win with the powers we've used so far. X5M might have been able to do it, but we can't form him right now. Our only choice is…" Hiro held up his own Digivice. "We've got to DNA Digivolve!"

"DNA Digivolve?" DC asked in confusion.

"That's right! There'll be a little bit of leeway because of your Xros Loader but since Veemon and Shoutmon are in the same family, it should work! This is our only hope!" DC smiled, holding up his Xros Loader.

"Okay then, let's give it a shot!" UlforceVeedramon roared in pain as the microphone, now set on fire, smacked him in the face, knocking him all the way back down to rookie level.

"And a good thing to," he said in exhaustion. "I don't think I could have taken much more…"

"Well you're gonna have to!" Hiro said, holding up his Digivice. The grip and edges turned deep blue while the many body of the device turned red, while DC's Xros Loader turned red with the screen, buttons and other details turning blue.

"**Shoutmon,**" DC said.

"**Veemon,**" Hiro added, then together.

"**DNA Xros!**" The two digimon shot into the air, twirling around each other in a glorious display. They both began glowing, one bright red and the other bright blue, both of them growing, changing and morphing before clashing together.

"**Shoutmon, Veemon, DNA DigiXros to…**" they both yelled. An enormous hand shot out of the join point, vertically shooting upwards, golden Meda-energy falling off of his fingers as the rest of his body shot out of the fusion. It looked like a totally recoloured UlforceVeedramon, his armour being red instead of blue and with flame arm pads and shoulder pads. His head rose up above the surface of the Meda-Energy sea, the horns extended with red tips. His eyes had turned golden, and even his V on his chest had red extensions. The rest of his body shot out of the sea, Shoutmon's microphone appearing in his hands. "**OmegaVeedramon!**" he roared.

**OmegaVeedramon**

**Level: Mega**

**Attribute: Vaccine**

**Family: Nature Spirits, Dragons Roar**

**Type: Royal Knight**

**Tamers: Hiro, DC**

**Attacks: Ex Burning Rocker, Heaven Victorize, Ultima the Fusion**

OmegaVeedramon roared in rage, his voice shaking the entire chamber. Even the Legend Army boss's eyes widened in surprise.

"Impressive, you two have the power to DNA Digivolve," he said. "I'm impressed."

"All you are to us is dead!" OmegaVeedramon yelled, his voice sounding like Veemon and Shoutmon's put together.

"Like hell you'll get the chance!" X7 screamed, charging towards him. "We are seven, you are two, what hope do you think you have? **Xros Burning Rocker!**" He smashed his mic against the ground, an enormous flaming V shooting towards them all. OmegaVeedramon did the same.

"**Ex Burning Rocker!**" he screamed in return, a red X flying over to greet it. The attacks exploded, cancelling each other out. OmegaVeedramon shot forward, smashing his microphone in X7's face. X7 went somersaulting backwards, crashing through two walls before immediately correcting himself, skidding to a hault before touching the third. He charged forward, tossing his microphone at OmegaVeedramon. "A true Shoutmon would never throw away his mic!" he yelled, deflecting it back towards X7.

"Oh yeah? Well at the end of the day I'm still the bigger man!" he replied, catching his mic. "I have the bigger V on my chest! See?" OmegaVeedramon's eyes narrowed, his serious demeanour gone.

"No, dude, clearly mine's larger, check it out, got the whole extensions. See?"

"No, but mine have gone _Alpha _big, see?" X7 said, tapping them. "The mark that I'm ready to Digivolve, see? Bigger."

"No, dude, just because there are more of you doesn't mean anything," Veedramon said, walking calmly over to him. "You can't use Royal Knight energy, that's the stuff our V's are made of! And besides, I've got _two _kinds of Royal Knight in me, so twice as much!"

"I thought you said quantity doesn't matter?" X7 said with a sly look.

"Just shut up about that whole quantity thing!" OmegaVeedramon yelled. Ikki stared in confusion as the two began debating heatedly with each other.

"Weren't they just having a battle?" he asked. Hiro placed his face in his palm sadly.

"Those idiots… Combine two idiots together, and you just get a super idiot…"

. . .

ChaosAlphamon stepped back warily, still trying to understand why it was himself with the sore fist and not his enemies with the sore faces. BlackWargreymon peeled himself off of the wall, Imperialdramon coming with him. Imperialdramon was standing on two feet now instead of four, his dragon head squashed and flattened over his chest like a breastplate while a black head with white hair and a crown was in place instead.

"That was a close one," he said. "Good thing I mode changed first." Imperialdramon pointed his left arm at them, a cannon appearing on it. "**Positron Laser!**" he yelled, firing a dense energy beam. The attack tore through the metal plated ground without even touching it, crashing into Alphamon's chest, sending him flying several feet before coming to a standstill at the opposing wall.

_Ryuga, are you okay? _Dorumon asked from within his head.

_Yeah, I'll live, _Ryuga replied. _But this doesn't make sense. How come he got so powerful just by changing combat modes? That wasn't an ordinary laser. If he'd chosen to fire that anywhere but at me, who knows how much damage that would've caused even outside… _ChaosAlphamon stood back up again, his voice sounding ridiculously loud.

"What's wrong with you?" Imperialdramon asked. "You sound like you're Darth Vader. Need to fix your respirator?" ChaosAlphamon ignored him, slowly dusting himself off before brandishing his lightsabre. He flung it at Imperialdramon, but the blade didn't even get close as another laser tossed it high into the air.

"Not what I was hoping for," ChaosAlphamon said. He charged forward, readying his fists. His blow collided with Imperialdramon's own fist, the shockwave from the punching destroying the walls around them all at once, the ceiling collapsing on their heads. Still, they all simply leaped out of the rubble, flying in the room above that now had no floor to speak of. ShineGreymon traded blows with BlackWargreymon, both of them punching till the claws on the end of their fists were shattered. They both shot back down to the pile of rubble below them, exchanging bursts of fire, occasionally grabbing the flames right out of their opponent's hands before sending them back with twice the force.

"Ryuga, this has gone on long enough!" ShineGreymon yelled, grabbing his opponent by the arms before flying down with him, slamming him face first into the rubble. While he was still recovering, ShineGreymon charged a ball of energy in his hands. "**Glorious, BURST!**" he yelled, burning BlackWargreymon to a crisp. ChaosAlphamon kept dodging all of the Positron lasers in the meantime.

"Kneel before me!" he yelled, ripping off the laser mounted to Imperialdramon, punching him straight back to the ground. Using his foe's own laser, he pointed it at the people below and fired, the explosion blasting them even higher into the air. The flames and smoke died down to reveal the two digimon, slowly disappearing into bits of data, flying up to the victors.

. . .

The two digimon were still arguing, attempting to measure each other's V with their hands.

"GUYS!" Nell yelled. "We're in the middle of a battle!"

"Uh, yeah, knew that," they said awkwardly before leaping away.

"Alright then Shoutmon, it's time we end this!" DC yelled.

"I agree," X7 said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. A gigantic silver star appeared behind him. "It's time I finish this with my most powerful attack!"

"Veemon," Hiro said, worry creeping into his voice.

"Don't worry, I got ya covered!" OmegaVeedramon said, doing the same with his own arms.

"As if we'd let you!" Aldamon roared, charging for OmegaVeemon.

"You didn't seem to mind before!" Metabee pointed out, punching Cybredramon hard in the face as Sumilidon sliced him up violently with his sword. Aokshi fired a Red Blaze at the two of them, the attack setting them on fire. X7 opened his arms again, his V glowing red.

"**SEVEN VICTORIZE!**" He screamed, firing an enormous red V out of it.

"**HEAVEN VICTORIZE!**" OmegaVeedramon countered, the attacks clashing in the middle, X7's red while Veemon's was blue. Bright purple light filled the chamber, the dazzling colours blinding everybody.

"What the hell, how're you… so… powerful?!" X7 asked in shock, putting even more pressure on the attack. The blue beam began shrinking, getting pushed backwards.

"We're losing, we're seriously losing!" Hiro cried. "At this rate we're gonna be crushed!" OmegaVeedramon pushed with his arms, willing more power out of his body.

"Not yet… I can still keep fighting… I still have power… left inside of me…"

"Oh shut up!" X7 yelled, six more Vs appearing around him. "**Seven Victorize, ****MAXIMUM!**" The other Vs fired, blasting OmegaVeedramon, his concentration slipping as the biggest one began pushing his attack back more. Just then, ChaosAlphamon fell from the sky, crashing next to them before splitting into a bruised and bloodied Ryuga and Dorumon. Dorumon tottered over to stand to the side of OmegaVeedramon, Chrome standing up his well to stand next to him.

"Veemon!" Dorumon yelled. "Don't give up!"

"Shoutmon!" Chrome added. "You're not done yet are you?"

"Huh? My rivals," OmegaVeedramon said softly. "Get out of here… If you stay when this thing hits… You'll be totally crushed!" As if emphasising his point, OmegaVeedramon roared as the six smaller lasers dug even deeper into his body.

"What's wrong with you?" Dorumon yelled. "You're my rival! You can't give up from this! You have to keep fighting!"

"Heh? You're… Really my rival?" Veemon asked, only his voice speaking.

"Yeah, I could just never admit that there's somebody in this world who might be stronger than me! So don't give up so that we can find out one day!"

"You to Shoutmon!" Chrome added. "You want to prove who's a better partner to DC don't you? Well here's your chance to do it! Hurry up and win!" OmegaVeedramon blinked the tears away, his resolve hardened.

"Right, then I'll prove it here!" Shoutmon said, then together summoned a whole swarm of small Vs, maybe even as many as twenty.

"What kinda nonsenses is this?!" X7 yelled.

"**Heaven Victorize… ****MAAAAXIMUUUUMMM!**" He fired them all, the blasts completely destroying all of the Victorize attacks, the large one included. "**This is the force of all the souls that are together to carve out name in victory!"** X7 howled as his fusion shattered, his bits and pieces of digimon armour all splitting apart and disintegrating as they were all defeated. Even Aldamon and Cyberdramon got caught in the blast, their data even getting obliterated. BlackShoutmon fell to the ground, his body refusing to move. OmegaVeedramon towered over him, looking down in rage. "You forced me to destroy innocents who wanted nothing to do with this," he growled. "For that, I cannot forgive you…"

"Please! Don't do this!" BlackShoutmon cried. "Mercy I say! Forgive a poor lost soul such as my own!"

"Begging for your life, how pitiful," he said, raising his mic, the butt of the weapon hovering over him. Rapid metallic footsteps filled the chamber before a tiny fist planted itself in OmegaVeedramon's face, toppling the entire digimon over. A small medabot landed next to BlackShoutmon, her cold, blue, emotionless eyes probably seeming like that of an angel's to him. Samantha's eyes widened in shock at the sight.

"Oh thank you, thank you so much!" BlackShoutmon said, grovelling at her feet. She pulled her toe away in disgust, kicking BlackShoutmon back.

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't do it for you. It's just that Nell asked for the two secret weapons to come out of hiding."

"Exactly," Nell said. "It's time that I bring them out." Heavy footsteps, heavier than all the ones they'd heard previously sounded from behind the throne, a gigantic door opening next to it. The true form of the creature behind it was hidden, the only sound they could hear being the sound of heavy footsteps and deep, laboured breathing. Flames began to creep out of the doorway, everybody stepping away from it in terror. To Samantha though, she couldn't even hear the noises. Her attention was focused entirely on the Medabot before her, her eyes stretched wide in disbelief. Blue eyes, a CAT type with a red coat, a spark plug for a tail and tazer-like fingers… Its design was heavily modified, and likely much more dangerous than before, but it was unmistakeable. Even if they were different medaparts, Samantha could see from the eyes alone and the recognition of her medawatch what she couldn't believe.

**Medabot Corporation**

**Specialty: Lightning Jump**

**Medal Type: Galaxy Queen**

**Signature: Medaforce**

**Recognition. Partner Medabot recognized.**

**Model Name: SpiralKat**

**Medal Name: Peppercat**

**Medafighter: Samantha**


	32. That's Evolution!

**First, thank you all soooo much for reading up till this point! I never would have imagined having written so much in my entire LIFE nor getting even two review, and here I've hit fifty! It's not a thousand or any terrifying number like that, but I'm pretty darn proud of myself! Thanks Shadow for being my loyal number fifty! You're DEFINITELY gonna love this chap!**

**Oh my days the finger cramp! Oh the finger cramp… My fingers feel like they're gonna fall to pieces! After a two day marathon while listening to (in no order of random awesomeness):**

**Can't Trust Anybody Now, by Jeff Williams (Red vs. Blue s9 theme)**

**This Will Be the Day, Casey Lee Williams (RWBY OST)**

**Red Like Roses Part II, Jeff and Casey Lee Williams (RWBY OST)**

**Wings, see above (RWBY OST) (only song that doesn't sound like somebody was trying to kill somebody…)**

**Set the World on Fire, Comeback Kid (I think)**

**Never Gonna Take Me Down (Beyblade OST)**

**Beyblade Metal Fight (Metal Fight Beyblade Theme)**

**The Digimon Title Theme, Paul Gordon (Digimon Adventure theme Dub)**

**We are Xros Heart X7 Version (Digimon Xros Wars OST)**

**Evolution and DigiXros, Wada Kouji (Digimon Xros Wars OST)**

**Sorairo Days, Nakagawa Shouko (Gurren Laggan Theme)**

**Row Row Fight the Power (Gurren Laggan OST)**

**And other stuff, I have completed the digital world arc! YEAAAAAHHH! I dunno why I wanted to list all the stuff I listen to while typing, there's more stuff I listen to but those are the main for this chapter. I guess I just wanted you to know what goes through my insane little head while typing.**

_**Alright, the battle with the mysterious Legend Boss is finally concluding! With the return of a face from the past and the final 'secret weapon' do our heroes really stand a chance at victory? We'll just have to wait and see I guess! This is a real lengthy one, so brace yourselves and bring a cup of coffee!**_

**Last note, I know this is annoying, but where I normally have my whole perspective change with the … things, I'll also have **_**Fight the Power **_**written in there. Yes, I got into the Zone (Flow state specifically, Google it. That stuffs fun!)**

**Apocalydramon belongs to ShadowLDrago. Things are gonna get nasty…**

**This is the Real Deal presents:**

**THIS IS THE EVOLUTION OF SPIRIT! (Yeah that's right, Evolution! ooooOOOOoooo!**

**Chapter 32: That's Evolution!**

"Pepper…Peppercat?" Samantha asked astonished. "Is that really you?" The cat medabot faced Samantha, her eyes dim, cold almost.

"I think you're mistaken," she replied. "My model isn't Peppercat, nor do I know any who possess that name. I am Spiralkat, the weapon designed to subjugate all who oppose the will of the Legend Army."

"That's not true, you're my medabot!" Samantha yelled. "You're my friend and partner, not a weapon. No medabot should be used as a mere tool!"

"I'm not programmed to listen to you. Only to destroy you."

"Geez that's some great logic, if that was true then you wouldn't be responding to me now! Peppercat what's wrong? I thought your medal was totally destroyed, you don't know how happy I am that you're still alive, but you don't look so thrilled to see your old partner. Don't you recognise me?" Spiralkat stared long and hard at Samantha while Samantha did the same to her. She looked slightly taller than before, and had green spiral patterns on her shoulders. Thick stripes ran all the way down her arms and what looked like a small pair of black wings stuck out of her back. Two drills pointed forward on her forearms near her fists.

"Sorry to burst your reunion there Samantha, but I think we've got bigger problems now!" Ikki screamed. Samantha snapped her attention away from who she thought was her friend. Heavy, resounding footsteps sounded from within the shadows. An enormous digimon stepped out from behind, its crimson eyes scanning the people before it.

It looked like a ShineGreymon at thrice its normal size, but everything about it seemed wrong. It was grey instead of white, with the red and yellow armour and accessories being black instead. Even its flames were a disturbing black and red, even trailing around it like a snake. Its entire right arm was a gigantic sword with three blades to create one enormous one, the same sword X5M was using, the Victory Grey Sword. His tail swung menacingly around in the air, the spike on the end lit up with purple flames.

"What… is that?" DC nervously asked, even his own stupidity and courage being silenced before it. The aura around it even was intimidating, as if its presence alone signified defeat.

"What's the matter?" it asked in a deep rustling baritone. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Well, you'll all be seeing many more once I'm through with you…"

"The dragon of the apocalypse," Ryuga whispered. "How did they even manage to tame this monstrosity?"

**Apocalydramon, God of Destruction**

**Type: Demon Dragon**

**Other data: N/A**

**A demon born from a ShineGreymon that achieved power surpassing both Ruin and Burst mode. Nothing but destruction awaits those who encounter this foe. The fire it uses is actually highly destructive virus data capable of shattering any firewalls, so consequently anything that its flames touches will not be put out until said object is completely destroyed. Its Black Sun attack absorbs anything close to it and will continue burning on, getting stronger with the more objects it burns until Apocalydramon allows it to stop, so defeating it is near impossible. RUN AWAY!**

**Warning, no other data available. Warning, no other data available. System reboot imminent. Warning…**

"Guys, cancel your scans!" Hiro roared. "None of our medawatches or Digivices can handle the raw amount of output this thing gives out!"

"What _is _it?" Koji asked. "That thing can't possibly be a digimon can it?"

"I'm afraid it is," Lilithmon answered grimly. "I thought this thing was a myth… None of the other enemies we've faced so far can even compare to this guy. I honestly don't think we stand a chance."

"Our odds are roughly zero point zero one percent, taking into account the chance of a meteor crashing into it." Hiro mumbled. Apocalydramon glared at them all, holding out his sword towards them.

"I can sense that most of my brethren have been defeated," Apocalydramon said. "I would like to test out the strength of those who won against my comrades. Unfortunately for you that means that this is your last hour, or possibly even minute." Black and red flames began licking up and down his blade. Everyone scattered even before he could swing the huge monstrosity of a sword, the flames lashing out in a gigantic burning wave. The metal behind their heads melted in an instant, the flames going further into the next room before dissipating.

"What the heck was that just now?!" Ikki yelled. "Metabee, whatever you do, _don't get hit by that!_"

"I think that goes without saying!" Metabee screamed as he flew back to Ikki. Before he could even get halfway, Spiralkat was already on him, grabbing his leg as he yanked him forcefully back to the ground. The pair crashed into the floor, a large Metabee shaped dent appearing where he landed. Electricity coursed through Metabee's whole body, paralysing him on the spot.

"Transport Puttycat!" Samantha called. Puttycat materialised in a blue ball of electricity before her, holding her paws up to battle. She charged forward, trying to tackle Spiralkat to the ground, only to simply crash into her as if she was a brick wall, Spiralkat not moved in the slightest. Puttycat blinked in confusion before punching her angrily again and again, each blow doing nothing to her. Spiralkat faced her with an annoyed look on her face, stepping closer to her. Puttycat stepped backwards, still trying in vain to harm her. Spiralkat kept walking to her, pushing her back with barely any effort at all. Spiralkat swung the back of her hand sharply, batting Puttycat back to Samantha.

"Don't underestimate me, the fact that I'm also a secret weapon means I'm on par with Apocalydramon alone. You can't defeat us." Apocalydramon chuckled ominously as if confirming what she said.

"That's a bold statement you're making there Spiralkat, do you truly believe yourself to be my equal?"

"Of course not, your majesty," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "When it comes to power you have me beat, however, together we are a danger to all who oppose us, isn't that right?"

"I suppose you have a point there. Shall we demonstrate our powers some more?"

"I'd be much obliged, friend." Apocalydramon charged forward, his blade burning with fire. ShineGreymon stepped in the way, using his whole body as a shield. The blade tore right through him, sending him to the ground like a meteor, crashing through several floors.

"ShineGreymon!" Dorumon cried before snarling menacingly at Apocalydramon. He spat small metal cannon balls at him, but the attacks had no effect, exploding harmlessly against his armour.

"Leave this one to us!" Akkia yelled. "Aokshi, Red Blaze attack!"

"StormBeetle, seeker missiles!" Ikki called. Aokshi launched a massive red fireball at the monstrosity before them, two missiles accompanying the attack. Apocalydramon smacked both attacks away, the blasts detonating against the wall to his left. Apocalydramon growled as he swung his sword around in the air. Flames filled the space above their heads, almost like black and red thunderclouds.

"Everybody, take cover now!" Leo yelled. "If he attacks with that thing…" Apocalydramon swung his blade down.

"**Firestorm!**" he roared. The sky above their heads began raining down, but instead of water what looked like flame droplets drummed down on them, burning all they came into contact with. OmegaVeedramon stepped forward, his whole body glowing blue.

"I'm not gonna let that attack hit!" he roared. An enormous blue aura built up around him, forming a gigantic silhouette of the regular UlforceVeedramon around him, even larger than Apocalydramon. "**Ultima the Fusion!**" he yelled as he flew up to Apocalydramon, blocking the raining fire with his body. He roared in pain as the rain melted through his armour like acid, but still he kept going.

"Don't give up Shoutmon!" DC roared.

"Don't give up Veemon!" Hiro yelled at the same time. OmegaVeedramon screamed in pain and rage, his wings burning off, and yet he still kept flying through it. With the last of his strength, he punched Apocalydramon in the face, the force of the blow threatening to suck everybody into it. Apocalydramon took a step back in shock to steady himself, before grabbing OmegaVeedramon's arm.

"Is that what you call an attack?!" he laughed. "Pathetic!" He smashed him against the ceiling mercilessly, then against the walls repeatedly, then finally back down to the ground. The fusion separated, Veemon tottering around dizzily while Shoutmon lay on his back heaving.

"No way, they got beaten like they were nothing!" DC cried. Lilithmon charged forward herself, darkness charging up in her claws. Spiralkat stood in her way.

"You irritating little girl," Lilithmon said before flying up and out of her reach. Spiralkat flew up after, electricity building up around her as she shot up after her.

"**Lightning Blaze!**" Spiralkat roared, electricity charging between her paws. Before Lilithmon could even do anything to stop it, she was already consumed by the blast, getting sent crashing into the wall. Before she could do anything more Spiralkat was after her again, the drills on her forearms spinning rapidly. Everybody cringed at the sound of the punch as Lilithmon went somersaulting through the wall all the way to the other room.

"Puttycat, you've got to stop her!" Samantha yelled.

"I already know, I'm on it boss!" she yelled. Samantha ripped out Dragoon again, a tornado erupting from the blade. Puttycat leaped into the air, the tornado propelling her into Spiralkat.

"Now! Storm Combo!" Putty cat spun around like a Beyblade herself, her foot ramming into Spiralkat's head, sending her back to the ground in a cloud of dust. Puttycat followed her down, smashing her knees against her enemy's head.

"Guys, leave Spiralkat to me!" Samantha yelled, running after her medabot and Beyblade.

"Are you crazy?!" Ikki screamed. "Spiralkat just knocked out a Mega Level with one punch! Alone a medabot doesn't stand a chance against her!"

"But Puttycat's not alone," Samantha countered. "She's got me and Dragoon backing her up to! I _know _I can do this! That's my Peppercat in there! I don't know what they did to her but I know Peppercat still lives inside there! I can get her out, trust me!"

"Ikki, we don't have time to argue," Ryuga said. "We have to deal with Apocalydramon, and so far we haven't even tickled him. Let's beat this guy quick so we can go help Samantha later!"

"Argh this is so annoying!" Ikki screamed. "Fine, StormBeetle, are you still alive?"

"Never better Ikkster," he replied. "Regular attacks aren't working, so let's just use Medaforce and be done with this!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" Nell laughed. "Not even your finishing Ultra the Fusion attack worked against him, what makes you so sure that anything else will work on him?"

"Nothing makes me sure!" Ikki yelled. "There's no guarantee that anything we've done up till now would work, we've just had to do it! The fate of the world may depend on it!"

"Exactly what he said!" DC roared, his Xros Loader glowing red hot. "We don't know about anything ever working right now, but we've just got to do it, doubts or no doubts! **Chrome!**"

"Ready!" Chrotojil roared. DC held up his Xros Loader.

"**Shoutmon**!"

"Okay!"

"**DigiXros!**" The two of them shot into the air, yellow and red light filling the room. They crashed together in a fit of sparks, the blazing red X slashing through the join point.

"**DigiXros!**" Chrome and Shoutmon roared as they began joining together. Chrome gained a red V on his chest, the V flashing from red to gold. Shoutmon's microphone appeared in his hand, gleaming before Chrome's machineguns came off of his wrists, attaching themselves to the end along with red metal plates, forming a huge war hammer. "**Everlasting combination, Xros Up Chrome!**" he roared. Chrome swung his hammer down on the ground. "**Bullet Hammer!**" he yelled. Machinegun bullets shot out of the ground beneath Apocalydramon like a fountain, spraying his feet and legs with bullet holes. Apocalydramon roared in rage, barely taking any damage from the attack.

"Weakling! Do you seriously think your toy guns will do anything to me?" Apocalydramon stomped on the ground angrily. The metal plates beneath their feet all buckled, sending them all to the ground.

"Stingmon, Lilymon, **DigiXros!**" DC roared again. Stingmon's wings came off his back, folding into an X before his whole body and insect armour built up on top of it to form a shuriken. Lilymon grabbed the Shuriken, spinning it around aggressively.

"**Xros Up Lilymon!**" she roared.

"**Elecmon, Etemon, Exor, Saikachis, DigiXros!**" Elecmon absorbed Etemon, growing to Etemon's full size himself though still on four legs. His stripes disappeared, and his fur turned the same gold as Etemon while his tails disappeared, replaced with only one. A lion's mane appeared around his neck while a green gem embedded itself in its forehead. Sumilidon and Saikachis broke up into multiple different pieces, all attaching to the lion's body, covering himself in metal all over. Its tail morphed into a large grey wrecking ball the size of its head, while its mane transformed, several blades corkscrewing around it, the whole metal mane spinning like a drill.

"**LoaderLiomon!**" he roared, his voice sounding more like a medabots, Elecmon's childish voice doubled over with machine synthesizing. Lilymon and LoaderLiomon both charged forward, roaring angrily. Apocalydramon simply smashed them back to the ground as if they weren't even there, ignoring all the effort put in to make them.

"Veemon," Hiro said, holding up his D-3. "Those two may be ultimate level, but without our strength they're finished!"

"So it's time for us to get serious again?!" Veemon asked, his eyes fists already clenched to fight.

"Veemon, **Warp Digivolve!**" Veemon back flipped, glowing bright blue as he shot past all of his evolved forms, forming the titanic dragon digimon.

"**UlforceVeedramon!**" he roared, glowing blue blades appearing out of his forearms. LoaderLiomon swung his wrecking ball tail at the ground, cracks appearing in the ground all the way to Apocalydramon. Lilymon swung her shuriken at the enemy digimon, the shuriken striking against him over and over again while UlforceVeedramon punched him in the chest repeatedly. Chrome joined them, smashing his hammer against him again and again.

"We're winning, we're actually going to win!" Leo yelled.

"No," Ikki said quietly.

"What do you mean no? We're finally harming him!"

"No, this level of power isn't enough! We can't beat him like this!" Right on cue, Apocalydramon roared in rage, the mere sound shaking the very foundations of the room.

"**Heat Wave!**" he roared, black flames exploding outwards around him, knocking all of the digimon backwards, all of the fusions but StormBeetle breaking immediately.

"Great, this isn't working at all!" Ryuga roared. "I don't have the power to create two mega level digimon at once anymore either. I can get ChaosAlphamon back, but I'd be lucky to be able to make Agumon become RizeGreymon…"

"Don't worry about me," Agumon said, crawling out of the hole in the ground he'd made at the start of the fight. "I'll beat him even if I am still small… Leave it all to me…"

"Agumon, no. You need to rest. If you fight any more you might really be killed…"

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on dying," Agumon laughed.

"Darn!" DC exclaimed. "I've still got plenty of power to spare but I'm still too weak, Ryuga's so powerful but he's too tired… If only I could find some way to share my power…"

"Share your power?" Ikki asked, an idea beginning to form in his head. "Maybe there _is _a way to do that…"

. . .

_Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight the Power… Fight the Power…_

. . .

Samantha entered the separate chamber to see Puttycat getting flung across the room. Spiralkat wasn't showing any signs of easing up on her, electricity coursing through her arms. Dragoon shot forward after the pair, the blue dragon roaring angrily as he charged at Spiralkat. Spiralkat didn't even bother turning around, slamming the back of her fist hard into Dragoon's face, the dragon getting banished back into its blade. The blade kept charging anyway, the ground beneath it getting torn to pieces. Spiralkat stuck one of her drills into the ground, the drill swirling round and around, the metal shards spinning like a giant Beyblade themselves, slapping Dragoon back to Samantha's hand.

"If that's all the power you possess then you should have called for help from your friends," Spiralkat said. Her eyes looked cold and emotionless as she stared at Samantha, almost tempting her to deny it.

"Shut up, that isn't Peppercat talking!" Samantha cried. "You're not the friend that I spent so much time talking to! Why won't you wake up Peppercat? What's wrong with you?" Spiralkat didn't even bother replying, charging for Puttycat. Puttycat dodged a storm of rapid strikes, back flipping away from her.

"Samantha, what do I do?" Puttycat asked. Samantha really didn't want to order Puttycat to fight, seeing them both battling each other was painful, but she knew if she didn't Puttycat was going to be destroyed. She couldn't lose her friend like that. Not again.

"Puttycat, this things power is equal to a digimon, we can't win if we robattle the way we normally do. Use your speed to your advantage. You're faster, you _have _to be faster, but in case you're not we need to use tag team attacks together with Dragoon. Understood?"

"Roger that," she said. Puttycat leaped over Spiralkat, flipping and somersaulting through the air. Spiralkat sprinted after her, her arms sparking up with electricity. Spiralkat struck at her, the attack busting a hole in the ground as Puttycat dodged. Samantha spun out Dragoon, his tornado raising up the huge loose pieces of the floor into the air, hurling huge metal slabs at Spiralkat. Spiralkat leaped over them all, her wings stretching wider as she flew higher, riding on the wind from Dragoon's tornado. Puttycat leaped on each slab, jumping from one metal slab to the next, trading blows with Spiralkat every time they met. Samantha could feel her eyes watering up with tears. Even if it was a deadly battle with all of their lives on the line, seeing the cat medabots leaping about above her, almost like they were running across the air itself, it seemed more like a deadly dance than a battle. It looked beautiful.

_What're you doing?! _A deep baritone voice yelled. _You have to focus! If you don't, all will be lost!_

"Dragoon?" Samantha asked in shock.

_Who else could it be?! I know you must be shocked, but your Tochikan influence must let you hear my voice, fight Samantha! If you do not, all you hold dear shall be lost!_

"Yeah, you're right!" Samantha yelled. "This is a serious robattle, I'm not going to space out here! Puttycat,** True Storm Combo**, now!" Puttycat spun around in mid-air, the gale force winds Dragoon was creating adding to the attack. Puttycat swung her leg down like an axe, crushing Spiralkat's shoulder. They both roared angrily as the wind added even more pressure to the attack. Before any of them could even get close to the ground the floor beneath them caved in, a massive crater forming below them.

"Was that the wind from the attack?" Puttycat asked in shock.

"Shut up!" Spiralkat roared, punching Spiralkat in the gut, sending a pulse of electricity along with it. A crater formed above them this time, in the same direction as the punch.

"Puttycat, that punch left her open, use the leftover power to spin and toss her!" Puttycat grabbed Spiralkat's arm, ignoring the electricity coursing through her gut and began spinning violently through the air, the wind from the tornado adding that much more force as she sent her hurling through the air, spinning wildly before she crashed into the wall. Puttycat landed on the ground a few metres away from Dragoon who was still generating the massive tornado. "Now together this time! Dragoon, I'm summoning you one more time, transfer all of your power to Puttycat now!" Dragoon began glowing bright blue as the gigantic monstrosity of a dragon shot out of the blade, howling into the air. Puttycat sprinted forward, sprinting on four legs as she switched to Action Mode. Dragoon spun behind her, his tornado enveloping Puttycat and launching her forward at lightning speeds. Dragoon wrapped himself around Puttycat's body, flaring bright blue and purple momentarily before disappearing, the blade putting on one last burst of speed before it slowed to a halt. Puttycat leaped forward, her armour clinking back to her normal form, her fist held behind her.

"This comes from the depths of Samantha's heart!" Puttycat roared, a dragon symbol forming in her left eye with a spiral in her right. "Come back to us already!" The Dragoon spectre swirled around her body, roaring angrily. "**Dragon Fist!**" Puttycat planted her fists firmly into Spiralkat's face as the Dragoon spirit also slammed into her whole body, the blow forming a gigantic dragon shaped crater against the wall. Puttycat dropped to the ground, her arm twitching dark grey as it shut down. Spiralkat slowly peeled away from the wall, crashing to the floor, sparks jumping off of her still form.

"Did… did we get her?" Samantha asked. "Did we beat Peppercat?" _And just what was with that extreme power anyway? Even if we missed it looks like those blows were still going to do some serious damage… That was beyond Gigaton, what exactly was that? Wait…_

Spiralkat stood up slowly, rubble falling off of her body.

**Spiralkat whole body between 72-85% damage. Critical condition. Puttycat right arm 100% damage, functions ceased. Legs 85% damage, left arm 60% damage, head 70% damage, overheating. Mobility compromised.**

"No way, she's still moving," Puttycat mumbled. "I hit her with everything I've got…"

"Looks like… your everything… wasn't quite enough," Spiralkat said haltingly. "I'll… defeat… you… I'll… win… for… the Screws… gang…" Samantha's heart skipped a beat.

"The… Screws gang… You remembered?" Spiralkat answered with electricity sparking around her, bits of the metal floor hovering in the air, held there as if by some magnetic force.

"I… will… **win**!"

. . .

_Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight the Power… Fight the Power…_

. . .

Lilithmon limped back into the room just to see Nell laughing maniacally as Apocalydramon rampaged among the halls, the tamers and Medafighters scattering before the violent onslaught.

"You stand no chance against the demon of destruction! You can't defeat the Legend Army! My father can never lose to the likes of you!"

"It would be nice if your father would actually fight himself!" DC yelled, running from a trail of flames. "But I guess if we have to knock around his pets a little bit to get his attention… Shoutmon, Chrotojil, joint Soul Crusher now!"

"No, don't!" Ikki yelled.

"Huh? Why not?" Shoutmon asked, already adjusting his microphone.

"It's not going to do a thing against an enemy like this! We need to get our strongest powers up to maximum strength and supply them with power from DC!"

"Why from DC?"

"Because right now he's the most energized out of all of us! Can't you see the number of DigiXroses he's making? He's got power to spare, but right now he's wasting it on half-baked fusions!" As if emphasizing his point, DC's Xros Loader blared brightly as he kept yelling out orders to his other digimon.

"DigiXros! DigiXros! DigiXros! DigiXros! DigiXros…"

"See my point?" Ikki said.

"So what're we meant to do then?" Ryuga asked.

"Ryuga, I need you to first Digivolve Dorumon back up to ChaosAlphamon, then get Agumon to mega level as well."

"I can't do that!" Ryuga yelled. "I don't have the energy to have two mega levels!"

"Don't worry, I've got a plan!" Ikki turned to DC. "DC, your fusions aren't strong enough to actually defeat Apocalydramon right now!"

"I know… I know that already! I know but it's all that I can do to try and help… This is my way of fighting, I'll stick by it till the end! If I can be useful to you guys in this way…"

"No, that's not all you can do! DC think, you've got a Xros Loader right? That's a Digivice, you're a tamer as well as a Medafighter, you can do the same stuff that the other tamers do to, right?"

"I'm not so sure, I've never been able to make Shoutmon Digivolve before…"

"Well then here's a time to find out just how much guts you actually have! Your double Xros Code is way more powerful than anything else any of us have got, so now you've got to show us! You've got to Digivolve!"

"I can't do it…" Shoutmon howled in pain as Apocalydramon slashed him back down to the others. Shoutmon got back up on wobbly knees, supporting himself with his microphone.

"Not yet… We can't die yet… We have to fight, for DC's sake… We have to…" DC clenched his Xros Loader tighter.

"Shoutmon…"

"DC, you've got to do it!" Chrotojil said. "You _can _make a _real _difference here and you know it! You've got to…" DC's Xros Loader began glowing bright yellow, light spilling out from it.

_Chrome… You believe in my strength so much… Even when I don't believe in myself you still do…_

"Hurry up already!" Ikki yelled. "I know that you can do it, so any time before we die would be nice!"

_And Ikki's so brave, even though he's a regular Medafighter he's still taking charge here even when we're too terrified to think straight… Courage, Friendship, it's those two things that keep us going when there's no hope… It's those two things, that'll give me the power…_

"To Digivolve!" DC yelled, his eyes glowing bright yellow. "Shoutmon! We're not going easy on them anymore! Time to show them the rocking out of her soul!"

"It's about time!" Shoutmon screamed, his whole body glowing gold. Large symbols circled around Shoutmon's whole body as DC held his Xros Loader in the air. Ryuga's eyes widened in shock.

"No way! That's… That's the symbol of Omega! That's Royal Knight energy!"

"Royal Knight energy?" Ikki asked. "That's good right?"

"That's better than good, that's…" Ryuga was cut off as DC roared, holding his Xros Loader in the air.

"**Shoutmon, SUPER DIGIVOLVE!**" Shoutmon roared in rage, light enveloping as he hovered into the air.

"No way, super digivolving," Lilithmon said in awe. "The power to completely skip Champion level and head straight for Ultimate, and with Royal Knight power, there's no way a rookie should be able to do that…"

"**Shoutmon, Super Digivolve to…**" Armour rapidly appeared on Shoutmon's arms and legs in the blink of an eye, his whole body growing and stretching, getting covered in gold plates. His legs gained blades on the front and back and even his red forehead V turned golden and stretched to twice its normal length, clinks appearing near the ends as if the extensions were added on. Four horn like projections stuck out from his cheeks. A large gold breastplate with two small holes on the front appeared on his chest while the rest of his torso also turned gold. Large shoulder pads appeared on both of his shoulders and his forearms were also covered in thick armour. He now stood at least nine feet tall and his microphone was nowhere to be seen, possibly absorbed into his armour. He flew into the air, spinning around in a flash of energy. "**OmegaShoutmon!**" he roared, the evolution complete.

**OmegaShoutmon**

**Level: Ultimate**

**Attribute: Unknown**

**Family: Nature Spirits, Dragons Roar**

**General: DC**

**Attacks: Hard Rock Damashi, Beat Slash, Heavy Metal Vulcan, Omega the Fusion**

**A Shoutmon that has inched closer to its destiny as a Royal knight, though this one releases a slightly different DukeForce resembling Gallantmon, its power is still just as terrifying. It is so fast that you are constantly looking at a shimmering afterimage of it. Its finishing attack Omega the Fusion blows away even the morale of those who face it.**

"Sooooooo awesome Shoutmon!" DC yelled. "Now, let's ride on this momentum to victory!"

"Right on!" OmegaShoutmon yelled. "I'll give this guy something to think about!" OmegaShoutmon flew forwards, flames building up around him as he shot through the air as a shimmering gold blur. He punched Apocalydramon hard in the face then flew away before he could be stopped, nothing more than a golden streak as he flew through the air.

"Shoutmon, make all of your moves as flashy as possible, the reflection of your armour should produce the same effect as the Quick flash Slash!"

"Understood! **Beat Slash!**" OmegaShoutmon somersaulted through the air, his legs nothing but a whirlwind as he struck at Apocalydramon.

"You little brat, **Pyro Explosion!**" Explosions detonated the sky, OmegaShoutmon flying through them effortlessly, almost as if he were dancing.

"You think that'll ever harm me?" he laughed. "**Hard Rock Damashi!**" Fireballs built up in OmegaShoutmon's hands as he hurled them at Apocalydramon. Apocalydramon swung his sword angrily again, smashing him back to the ground.

"Even with all of that power, it's still not enough?!" Akkia asked in shock.

"That's because Shoutmon isn't made for raw offensive power," Hiro said.

"He's made for the scream of your soooouuulll!" DC yelled.

"No, he's made for speed, and even if Apocalydramon can't hit him a lot, you can't harm him!"

"DC, I think you already know what to do!" Ikki said.

"Yeah, you never cease to amaze me Ikkster," DC said before turning to Ryuga. "Ryuga, Bio-merge with Agumon one more time!"

"I can't, I'm already at my limit…"

"Don't worry about it, if you Bio-merge while DigiXrosing with Shoutmon, then it'll be me and my Xros Loader holding the fusion together! You just have to Digivolve up to RizeGreymon and leave me to take care of the rest!"

"You can… Really do that?"

"I dunno, but we have to try!" Ryuga nodded his head, clenching his Digivice tightly.

"First…" He swiped a red card through his Digivice. "**Digi-Modify, Warp Digivolution!**" Dorumon shot right up to ChaosAlphamon, marching over to Apocalydramon, locking arms with it in a struggle for power. "Next…" He held his Digivice up to his heart, a ring of blue data wrapping itself around it. DC stood next to him, both of them facing down the monstrous Apocalydramon.

"Wait, Ryuga," Lilithmon spoke up. "This doesn't sound safe, how do you even know what's going to happen? Besides, your body still needs to recover after forming Sith Mode…"

"I'm the only one who can do this, you just have to trust us on this one."

"But Ryuga…"

"This is from all the friends I've gained along the way," Ryuga said, ignoring the complaints of his sister.

"And this is all the courage I've gained from them," DC added, then together they slammed the top of their Digivices together, flames burning around them.

"**BIO-XROS!**"

Ryuga shot into the air himself in a flash of golden light, Agumon flying up with him. OmegaShoutmon and Agumon both circled him, both glowing bright golden before crashing into him.

"**BIO-XROS!**" all three of them yelled, gold light filling the hall. Agumon grew in size, growing into RizeGreymon. Golden armour covered his whole body, his gun growing in size to. OmegaShoutmon's legs joined together, his whole body forming one gigantic blade. He stuck to RizeGreymon's right arm, sparking as he stuck to it. RizeGreymon's head slotted down onto his back while OmegaShoutmon's head replaced its old position. He swung his gun through the air aggressively.

"**Shoutmon BX!**" he roared in both RizeGreymon and OmegaShoutmon's voice.

**Shoutmon Bio-Xros**

**Level: Mega**

**Attribute: Vaccine**

**Family: Nature Spirits, Dragons Roar**

**Generals: DC, Ryuga**

**Attacks: Trident Jusfang, Brave Beat Rock Bio-Xros, Trident Nuclearizer, Victorize Bunking**

**A variation of Shoutmon DX, its power is horrifying and with OmegaShoutmon's speed added to it, it's a formidable foe at close and long range, and its Trident Nuclearizer is said to be able to fire with the force of a nuclear warhead.**

"What?!" Apocalydramon exclaimed. "What is that thing?" Shoutmon BX pointed his gun at Apocalydramon.

"Shoutmon BX is here! This fight is as good as won!"

"It's about time!" DC yelled. A timer appeared on his Xros Loader, ticking down the time they had left. "Five minutes, this fusion's too unstable so we only have five minutes to make it count! Now, time to get the real fight started!"

. . .

_Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight the Power… Fight the Power…_

. . .

"Puttycat, get out of there!" Samantha ordered. Puttycat leaped backwards away from a wildly aimed lightning paw, somersaulting back to Samantha's side. _Peppercat's taken all the abuse she can, _Samantha thought to herself. _She can't handle anymore blows, she's not even walking straight! I know it's hard, but I have to finish her off somehow…_

"I'm tired of this," Spiralkat said, aiming her paws at both Samantha and Puttycat. A red aura built up around her, condensing and thickening with each passing second. "I'm gonna blow this whole fortress into the clouds, and I'm gonna take you with it!"

"Wait, what're you doing? Peppercat?"

**Warning, Unknown Medaforce active, readings reaching critical mass. Caution is advised.**

"Caution?!" Puttycat screamed. "Caution is putting it lightly, whatever Peppercat's doing if she hits us with it we'll be blown to February the 33rd!" The drills on Spiralkat's arms began spinning rapidly, green swirling energy building up around them.

"Puttycat, stop it!" Samantha roared. Puttycat shook her head, nervously taking a step back.

"I don't think I can, that thing… That thing is…" A small green disc of energy began circling in front of Spiralkat, spiralling slowly as it grew in size. It looked almost like a galaxy of some kind. Dragoon spun back up into Samantha's hand.

"Then in that case, I'm counting on you Dragoon…" She ripped Dragoon out, the Beyblade landing on the floor in a mass of swirling wind. Dragoon shot towards Spiralkat, only to get blown back from even stronger winds emerging from the green disc. Dragoon's blade clattered back to Samantha's feet, smoke coming off of it.

"No… It can't end like this," Samantha said quietly to herself, tears streaming down her face. "Peppercat, please! Don't do this! I'm your Medafighter, remember? We were friends, we used to battle together, and laugh together, and pick on the scrawny kids back at school together to… We used to hang with Sloan and Spike and all of the guys in the Screws gang, you've got to remember!" The words fell on deaf ears as Spiralkat took one slow, laboured step forward, her drills growing larger and spinning rapidly, her whole arm consumed by them.

"I… will win… I'm… not weak… I'm… going to win…" Samantha clenched her fists, trying her best to hold back the tears.

"I don't care whether you win or lose Peppercat, I just miss you… This is painful for me, I don't want to fight you anymore, and I can't stand it!" Samantha stepped forward to, forcing herself into the winds anyway. She held her hands out in front of her, trying to block out the wind. "You have to remember me, right? I know I wasn't the best Medafighter out there… I know that I focused too much on strength, I equipped the wrong medaparts hoping you'd get stronger, and I bullied people at school even when you told me you hated bullies… I was always a coward, running whenever things got too tough for me, and I know that! I'm trying to change, really I am, but I want you to be there when I do, to remember who I was and see who I am, and who I'm going to be… Peppercat please!"

Samantha flinched as the winds intensified, squinting as dust blew into her eyes, putting the sunglasses that were always strapped around her neck on. She took another tentative step forward, struggling to move forward. Puttycat's arm grabbed the back of her jacket.

"Samantha, what're you doing? If you go any closer… you might not be safe anymore…"

"I know," Samantha replied, stepping forward again, leaving Puttycat's hand behind. "Peppercat…" The drills were by Samantha's side now, one of them ripping through her jacket, but still she kept going, even with the danger literally around her. She looked down at Spiralkat's emotionless eyes, a spiral pattern in the right one. "Maybe you don't remember me anymore, maybe you don't think of me either, but a day never passes when I don't think about you Peppercat, and even if you can't hear me, I want you to hear that…" Samantha wrapped her arms around Spiralkat's neck, her tears dripping onto Spiralkat's hard armour. "You're my best friend, please come back to me. I… I love you." The tears fell in torrents down Samantha's face, spilling onto Spiralkat's shoulders and face.

"T... tears? Why… tears?" The drills shrunk back to their normal size, slotting themselves inside Spiralkat's wrists. The wind died down, swirling around them in a calm breeze. Green hued droplets of energy fell on their backs gently. "Don't… cry… Samantha…" Samantha slowly released Spiralkat, staring back into Samantha's. They were a brighter blue than before, lights swirling around in them.

"Peppercat?" Samantha asked tentatively.

"Wipe away your tears boss," Spiralkat said softly. "They don't suit you."

"Peppercat!" Samantha squeezed her tight, her parts clicking in odd places.

"Not… so… tight!" she squealed.

"Too bad for you! I've missed you way too much to let you go!" The pair fell to the floor in a heap, Samantha still hugging her.

"Peppercat… I've… missed you," Samantha said between loud sobs. "I've… tried hiding… how sad I felt… but I missed you too muuuuch!"

"Okay, okay Samantha, calm down! I'm still rather confused about everything to!" Samantha got up, wiping away her tears with her sleeve.

"You better… Explain all of this to me later!" Samantha cried, sniffing loudly.

"Don't worry, I'll try my best to explain it to you when I can, but I think we have other worries to attend to." Samantha nodded her head affirmatively. She turned back to Puttycat.

"Samantha you…"

"I did _not _cry!" Samantha roared. "If… if any of you to tell _anybody _about all of the mushy stuff I just said… Ah heck, who am I kidding? I'm too happy to be mad at any of you! Look, just…"

"Don't worry, it'll be our secret," Puttycat said with a giggle.

"Yeah, so let's go join the others. Without their fearless leader by their side, they don't stand a chance, right?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself boss," Spiralkat said as they walked back through one of the many holes in the wall to the rest of the group. The final battle was nearly over…

. . .

_Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight the Power… Fight the Power…_

. . .

"Three minutes!" DC yelled. Metabee tossed his shuriken wildly at Apocalydramon, the blades slicing all the way around his body.

"**Heat Wave!**" Apocalydramon roared, blasting the shuriken back to Metabee again. Shoutmon BX leaped into the air, pointing his gun at Apocalydramon.

"**Trident Nuclearizer!**" he roared, firing three shots from his revolver. The bullets smashed into Apocalydramon's forehead, the explosion ringing loud enough to force everybody to cover their ears. Apocalydramon screamed in pain, his forehead gaining black scorch marks.

"You stupid little brats!" he roared, swinging his sword wildly around, blowing holes in the walls everywhere. ChaosAlphamon swung a powerful kick at Apocalydramon's head, just to find the blow was stopped by his free arm. He pushed ChaosAlphamon into the wall, sending a stream of red and black flames after him.

"Saikachis, Blackbeetle, together now! Suppress him!" Leo yelled. His two medabots sprinted across the hall, firing their machineguns at the titanic digimon with no effect. Apocalydramon raised his fist into the air, sending it down to crush them in a giant sized punch. Aokshi and Akkia both sprinted into the way, raising their arms above their heads. The fist crashed into their open hands, stopping just before it could crush them all. Akkia cried out in pain, her arms buckling in pain. UlforceVeedramon shot forward, the V on his chest glowing bright yellow.

"I'm not going to let you win!" he roared, stabbing Apocalydramon's shoulders. The swords shattered against his arm, the tips a metre into the shoulders. Apocalydramon head butted UlforceVeedramon, sending the mega level digimon back to the ground. Shoutmon BX held his gun and blade up in the air, setting them both on fire.

"**Brave Beat Rock, Bio-Xros!**" he roared, slashing them across each other twice to make two X shaped attacks, one formed from red flames and the other from blue.

"**Flaming Shield!**" Apocalydramon roared, a shield of fire shielding him from the attacks. The flames from Shoutmon exploded against the shield, the dust cloud concealing Apocalydramon's head. Apocalydramon shot forward, breaking out of the dust cloud as he rammed into Shoutmon.

"Ah! This guy's dangerous!" Ryuga yelled from within Shoutmon.

_This guy's making my blood boil! _Shoutmon said within Ryuga's head.

_I agree, he's not easy to fight, _Agumon added.

_Calm down you two, there's always a way to win, but we won't get anywhere if we just use techniques like these. Alone none of us can so much as put a dent in this guy, but maybe…_

"We have to work together!" Ikki yelled, even before Ryuga could voice his opinion. "Combine all of our attacks! Now before we get too weakened to use our strongest moves!"

"You weren't gonna leave _us _out of that equation were you?" Samantha yelled. Ikki turned in surprise to the source of her voice.

"Samantha? You're back!" Ikki yelled.

"Yeah that's right, and I'm better than ever!" she shouted energetically. Puttycat was to her right while Spiralkat was to her left. "Peppercat's back on our side, as Spiralkat! Isn't that awesome?" Spiralkat sprinted forward ahead of everybody.

"Apocalydramon, I'm your opponent now!" Spiralkat roared, flying into the air. The drill on her right hand extended as she brought her fist back behind her. Apocalydramon put up his sword to block already just before her punch impacted, the drill shattering one of the sword's three blades. A clear ringing sounded as she crashed against it, a crater forming beneath Apocalydramon.

"I've missed saying this," Samantha began. "Peppercat, **Lightning Jump!**" Spiralkat leaped over the shattered blade, her arms filled with electricity. She landed on Apocalydramon's face, sending thousands of volts of electricity through it. Apocalydramon screamed in pain before Spiralkat kicked him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground.

"**No way!**" Everybody screamed at once.

"She knocked Apocalydramon down?" Hiro asked in shock. "None of our digimon could do that… What kind of medabot _is _that? They weren't kidding when they said it's the secret weapon…"

"Who cares?" DC roared. "That thing's got me pumped _up! _Ryuga, I'm sending an extra dose of power, get ready!" Shoutmon BX roared with passion as flames engulfed his whole body.

"**Trident Jusfang!**" he roared as he sliced at Apocalydramon. Another flame shield buffeted both him and Spiralkat back before they could do anymore damage.

"This… this can't end like this!" he roared.

"Apocalydramon!" Nell screamed. "Stop holding back! Use the Black Sun!"

"You know that if I use that move the whole fortress may burn down, right?" Apocalydramon stated, though from the look in his eyes as he stood up it looked like he didn't care.

"Just do it!"

"As you wish…" Apocalydramon held out his hand above him. A ball of black flames began building up, lightning sparking from it with each passing second.

"Guys, that attack can seriously destroy us all!" Samantha roared. "It's on the same scale as the move Spiralkat was using earlier, maybe even greater! We can't let ourselves get hit by that!"

"But it has one vital weakness!" Ikki said with a smile. "It takes so much time to charge up, we can do the same thing to! We don't have enough power to break his focus and stop it, but we can match it, and even defeat it once it's thrown! Everybody, combine your strongest attacks as one! Metabee, Windstorm, you know what time it is then!"

"Alright, let's do this!" StormBeetle yelled as he landed on the ground next to the others, green energy building up around him, then rainbow light to. Guns among guns appeared all over StormBeetle's body. "**Dude… I rock…**"

**Medaforce type 4, Dimension Crash active.**

"Aokshi," Akkiana said, standing next to him. "It's time, the Ying Yang Medaforce has to be used if we want to stand any chance at victory!" The pair stood together, charging up a black and white energy ball between the two of them.

"Well, this is the big one!" Lilithmon added, charging her own blast to. "Time to put everything behind this one!"

"Veemon, you're ready for this right?" Hiro asked, light seeping out of his Digivice.

"I'm always ready!" UlforceVeedramon yelled, blue spectral dragons appearing around him.

"I might not have Sith Mode," ChaosAlphamon said. "But I still have one more Sith Mode attack left!"

"Sumilidon, it's time!" Koji yelled. "The Extreme Shadow Sword!"

"I'll do my best Koji!" Sumilidon said, holding his claws out behind him.

**Medaforce type 4, Extreme Shadow Sword active.**

"Chrome, Shoutmon, you know what to do!" DC yelled, his Xros Loader burning red hot.

"Yeah, we'll do it together!" Chrome said, his cannons rotating rapidly.

"We've got this one!" Shoutmon BX said, his V glowing red.

"Don't forget about us!" Stingmon said, holding up his stingers.

"And the rest of Dark Network!" Lilymon said, pointing her cannon at the thing, Elecmon's tails sparking with electricity while Etemon held his guitar.

"Saikachis, BlackBeetle, it's time for your finishing attacks!" Leo yelled.

"Ready!" both Saikachis and Blackbeetle said, charging up their weapons.

**Buster Wave active, Starlight Explosion active.**

"Don't forget us!" Samantha yelled, placing Dragoon inside the launcher. "Without us added to the mix, there's no way you can win!" Peppercat charged up lightning between her hands while Puttycat stood in front of Samantha, ready to be launched forward.

"I don't think I have the strength for the Medaforce," Spiralkat said. "I do have strength that can hurt him though!"

"Fools! The weak are still weak even when gathered!" Apocalydramon roared. "Humans will always stay weak! They're puny and insignificant, fight amongst themselves, kill and murder and destroy, and those that ally themselves with human are too weak to support themselves! Why can't you see that you've reached your limit?"

"No, _you're _the one who's reached his limit!" Ikki yelled. "You just look down at those who're smaller then you to feel superior and never gain any strength, that's _your _limit! It's true that humans are weak and stupid, and we make a whole lot of mistakes, but once we pair up with Medabots, Digimon, Beyblades, and all our friends and family, we can learn from those mistakes. We can grow and change, and each time the world turns, we become better people! **That's called Evolution!** Now guys, let's do this! All of our hopes and dreams are on the line here, let's show them just who we are!" Energy blasted off of the whole group, centred around Ikki as he stared straight into Apocalydramon's eyes. The Legend Boss raised his eyebrow, the first change in his expression since the battle began.

"So much meda-energy… So, so much energy… Nell."

"I know," Nell said, pointing her hand in front of Apocalydramon. A black circle of flames built up in front of him. "I'll amplify Apocalydramon's power for you. They're finished if they think they can match our might!"

"It's over for you!" Apocalydramon roared. "**BLACK SUN!**" He hurled the black ball of energy down at them with all of his might, the very air around it warping as it left his hands.

"It's time," StormBeetle began, Windstorm's voice doubling over his. "**To kiss your bot goodbye!"**

"**Ying Yang Medaforce!"**

"**Dragon Impulse!"**

"**Force Repulse!"**

"**Extreme Shadow Sword!"**

"**Gunmetal Barrage!"**

"**Victorize Bunking!"**

"**Spiking Strike!"**

"**Flower Cannon!"**

"**Electric Shock Attack!"**

"**Dark Network: Concert Crash!"**

"**Buster Wave!"**

"**Starlight Explosion!"**

"**Lightning Blaze!"**

"**Dragoon Storm Attack!"**

"**True Storm Combo!"**

And finally StormBeetle:

_This is it Metabee, _Windstorm said within Metabee's head, time slowed to a crawl for the pair of them. _We might not come out of this blast intact you know._

_Please, of course we'll make it out! _Metabee said. _We have to put everything behind this attack!_

_Just in case though, I have something _really _important to tell you… Being with you and Ikki and all the others… I've had a lot of good times together, good times and bad. I've made a lot of memories, and I've been thinking… Getting to know you, was nice, or at least bearable…_

_And where are you going with this? _Metabee questioned.

_Metabee, I think I… I think I… l-_

_Don't go starting with your last words like this! _He yelled. _You can't have any doubts when we do this, we're going to Metabee-bop this guy, and then go back and finish off the tourney with the rest, and go to Africa, then back home to Japan, and win! So stop thinking that you're going to die, and survive!_

_Metabee… Yeah, you're right Metabee… Let's finish this and get back home!_

Time unfroze for them as StormBeetle lowered his hands, firing off his laser along with everybody else, his guns all going off at once to.

"**MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAFFFFFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRCCCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"**

The whole hall filled with cascading sounds and lit up in a dazzling display of lights, explosions, laser beams, body parts, machine gun fired Victorize attacks, even bigger lasers, tornadoes, flames, rifles, rockets, the sound of electric guitars, and just about any other attack imaginable, and right in the centre was a massive yellow laser from Metabee, all clashing against the massive fireball coming from Apocalydramon. Lightning zapped across the room, the air warping from the force of so many attacks being used.

"So many Medaforces and finishing attacks at once," Koji began. "I've never seen anything like this! If this continues…"

"This isn't good!" Hiro interrupted. "The force of the colliding attacks is disrupting the very programme of the digital world! We might become an anomaly, excess data with no root folder that we reside in and therefore removed from its memory!"

"In laymen's terms man!" DC yelled.

"We might create a black hole like this! It's gonna kill us all if it wins!" Sure enough, odd pockets of darkness began filling the surrounding area, attracting the metal plates to it.

"I won't give up!" StormBeetle yelled, even as his fusion was wearing off. "We'll keep on fighting until we've got nothing left to fight with, and even then we'll just pick up the pieces and keep fighting some more! We won't give up so easily!"

"Like I'll allow it!" Apocalydramon roared. "My Black Sun will keep on getting stronger the more you try and fight it! It's hopeless!"

"So clashing against it doesn't work right?" Metabee asked. "Then we'll just break through it! With this freaking big laser of ours, we'll pierce right through it!"

"What? That's impossible! The force needed to do that is ridiculous!"

"I guess you didn't know then!" Metabee ripped off Windstorm's shuriken, sticking it in front of the Medaforce blast, the whole shuriken spinning rapidly as the Medaforce laser grew even larger, spiralling to. "**Mine is the Laser that's gonna pierce the freaking heavens! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!**" The laser broke through, pushing with a visible effort through all the layers of fire that were pushing it on, twisting them out of proportions. Apocalydramon roared in fear and pain as the laser reached him, blasting through with ridiculous force, the wall behind him crumbling to pieces as his whole body began tearing itself to pieces.

"No, **no! It can't end like this! I am Apocalydramon… Demon dragon, king of destruction! Noooooooo!**" Every other attack burst through, shattering the Black Sun, exploding and burning along the way, the air rippling as they shot on through the fire towards Apocalydramon, even the physical force from Puttycat and Stingmon's kicks and stings going forwards in a blast of wind. The attacks crashed into him, Apocalydramon screaming in an unearthly howl, his body twisting and contorting as it fell apart, flying high out of the fortress and into the blue sky, disappearing as a speck in the distance. The Legend Boss's eyes widened in shock.

"What?! Apocalydramon was defeated? Impossible!"

"Father stand back!" Nell cried, pushing him out of the way as huge chunks of machinery fell from the sky. A small metal slab crashed on top of Nell, the attack crushing her leg against the ground. She screamed in pain, pulling her thighs in an attempt to pull her leg out. "Father… Please help me!" The Legend Boss looked her in the eyes, fear plain in his own before he calmly adjusted his suit.

"Well, I suppose this is the last time we shall see each other Nell," he said.

"What? But Father, you have the strength to save me… Father?" The Legend Boss turned his back on Nell, a passage opening in the wall.

"My plans were ruined this time. Fret not Nell, you fought well today. Your sacrifice shall not be in vain. However, once you have failed, I have no more need for you. Farewell."

"Father wait!" The man walked out, the door shutting behind him, shutting Nell out of his life. "No, Father no! Don't leave me here! Not like this! Don't abandon me, I don't want to be abandoned! Please!" Tears streamed down her face in torrents as the whole room began to fall apart, chunks of metal crumbling from the ceiling. The floor beneath their feet rumbled and shook, the noise drowning out everything as everybody realised just what kind of peril they were in, and as if to make things worse, all the digimon degenerated back to their baby like in-training forms but Shoutmon BX, and with his RizeGreymon stylized wings disintegrated, there went their hopes of flying out through any holes in the ceiling. Everybody picked up their partner digimon delicately.

"We've gotta get out of here, now!" Ikki yelled, turning back to the door they entered through to Ceresmon. Gigantic metal pipes fell from the ceiling, collapsing in front of the door. "Well that's awfully inconvenient…"

"**Victorize Bunking!**" Shoutmon roared, a whole array of numerous red V shaped blasts shooting out of his head, shredding the pipe to pieces, the sound of tearing metal accompanied by what sounded like a short guitar riff. "Go now… before it's too late…" Shoutmon BX flickered with data as he fell to one knee, heaving from the exertion. The fusion broke, the red Jyarimon and a tiny black, yellow eyed fuzz ball was probably what was left of Agumon, while Ryuga lay between them still on his knee, blood covering his whole arm and dripping down his face, his clothes torn to pieces and covered in sweat and grime.

"Ryuga, you can still walk right?" Hiro asked, flinging Ryuga's arm over his shoulder for support. Ryuga nodded his head weakly. "Good, then let's get out now before this whole place blows!"

"No! But the Legend Boss," Samantha began. "We were so close! We just have to follow him and we can end this here!"

"If we follow him, we're all gonna die!" Ikki yelled, grabbing her hand to yank her back to Ceresmon. "We've got to get out of here now while we still can!" The group all began the mad dash back to Ceresmon, the bird already shifting awake as it turned around, preparing to leap out. A large grass platform hung down the side like an elevator, Ceresmon Medium beckoning everybody onto it. Everybody bundled onto it, the elevator raising itself up.

"Did you get him?!" Ceresmon asked desperately.

"He got away," Ikki said. "I don't think he's gonna get far though. I'll explain everything later, but for now, hurry!"

"Wait a second, where's DC?" Shoutmon, or Jyarimon, asked. Everybody looked around in panic.

"Wasn't he just carrying you?" Ikki asked.

"Nu-uh, Chrome picked me up when I degenerated, I didn't see him anywhere! Where could he have…?" Ceresmon was already preparing to take off, waiting for nobody. Ceresmon launched into the air, her broken wings flapping furiously to take them higher into the air. The group looked back at the distant chamber that they'd left only just moments before. Nell was still stuck beneath the metal all alone, her father nowhere to be seen, and running after her was DC sure enough. The remains of the chamber disappeared from view as they rose higher.

"No, wait! What're you doing?" Chrome yelled. "My Medafighter's still in there! Let us go back!"

"There's no time, we can't stay in there any longer! DC will be fine!"

"I want to believe you but with how huge that place was who knows what's going to happen when it blows!" Ceresmon didn't reply, just looking ahead, the bird clawing its way out of the layers of metal. "Ceresmon!"

. . .

_Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight the Power… Fight the Power…_

. . .

Nell stared at the spot where her father was only moments before. She still couldn't understand what had just happened. There's no way her father would abandon her. She knew how cold the man could be, better than anyone maybe, but the future he wished to build was for _her _to live in. All the others to. They were working to build a future for them to all live in peace. He _promised _her that he'd make a better world for them all. He _promised _that he'd protect them all, that he'd bet his very life on protecting them, if they would dedicate their own lives to building this future. That's what she'd done for years, always everything for her father. And yet here when she needed him the most…

"Why?!" Nell screamed, banging her fist on the ground. She could already feel herself losing control of her powers as she lost reign of her emotions. The world hid itself beneath a purple mist, and the seeping, creeping, crawling hint of power seeped up the veins in her arms, her skin dyeing itself purple, scales appearing instead of skin. She screamed in rage and grief, beating futilely at the rocks that trapped her legs. Even with her powers fully active, she couldn't use a speck of her real strength with her emotional state. Still she thought back to his last words.

'_I have no more need for you. Farewell._

She screamed some more, bending chunks of metal with her bare hands, desperately trying to peel it off of her.

"Whoa, you need to chill out some!" an energetic voice called out. Nell turned with a start to the sound of the voice. Standing there, his red cap and all, the ends of his jacket burnt. And his eyes… Glowing bright, almost as if with fire. No… there really _was _fire in them, like golden suns, his gaze inescapable. Those eyes…

"No! Stay back!" Nell cried, hiding her face behind her hands. Her pupils were likely nothing more than slits at this point, monstrous and snakelike now. "Don't look at me… I'm…" _I'm a _monster_…_

"In need of serious help!" DC finished for her. He ran towards the slab that trapped her legs. With visible effort, he grabbed the edge of the metal and pulled up, heaving with the effort.

"You can't possibly lift that if you're a normal human!" Nell yelled.

"Well I'm no normal human!" he shot back. "In case you didn't notice, you're the one trapped beneath this thing, so you've got no choice but to believe I can lift it up!" DC roared, and with one final push of power, shoved the slab half off of her legs, her ankles still trapped beneath it. He whistled as he saw the condition of what he'd freed. "Odds are that even if I get this off you in time you won't be going anywhere fast…"

"Leave me alone already! I have no more reason to live! I… I did my duty to my father… I no longer have a use…"

"Sorry if I sound rude if I say this, but I'm not sure I'd be happy having a creep like that for a father anyway! Not to mention he seems to buy his clothes from somewhere in Gotham city…"

"Don't talk that way about my father!" A rumbling sound from above interrupted her train of thought. She looked up and caught her breath. Yet another chunk of metal was falling from the ceiling, on a path straight for her. The tears welled up behind her eyes as she finally realised it was over for her. The metal impacted. But not with her.

DC stood above her, his knees shaking with the effort, looking ready to collapse. The chunk of metal rested on his back, DC bent over with the load on his black slightly cracked, one of his eyes closed shut as his face was screwed in pain.

"Ugh… This thing hurts… And the medabots and digimon were flying through this stuff? What the hell…" For some reason, even more tears fell down Nell's face as she stared up at her rescuer.

"Why… why did you save me?!"

"Isn't it obvious? You were going to die… And I could understand you. You don't look like you really know about what the Legend Army is really doing… If my dad told me all my life that Tochikans were evil and should be destroyed, heck I'd probably believe him, so I understand about wanting to listen to him. But…" DC roared, two large rings of data streaming around him. "That line of thinking, is _wrong!_" DC hurled the slab off to the side before collapsing to the ground, his whole body trembling in exhaustion. "The world isn't so black and white. If you rely on one point of view your whole life, you'll never get to see the bigger picture. You'll never get to see… Just what exactly it is that you guys are destroying… You'll never understand all of us weak humans who just try to get on with our daily lives. You'll never understand what you've stolen from those same humans, if you go your whole life hating them."

"But, humans can't… Humans won't accept me…"

"Then if humans won't accept you, then I will!" DC said with a smile. Nell's heart stopped dead for that fraction of a second.

"You're lying… You probably just want to use me for something…"

"Nell, your name is Nell right? Look me in the eyes. Do I look like I'd be lying right now?" Those eyes again, the irises themselves were shaped like flames, and flickering like them to. It's like they were literally on fire, burning bright gold. Was this a side effect from making so many fusions earlier? Or was it something else? Whatever it was, there was no deceit hidden in them. No evil in them at all, just…

"Stupid, that's impossible… I'm a monster. I'm not even sure if I'm actually part Tochikan, or something else entirely… You could never…"

"I don't really care about all that," DC said. "My friends are all totally weird. Digimon, medabots, Tochikan, Japanese, American, Norwegian, Malawian, heck I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were aliens! So that doesn't matter to me… If you don't believe humans will accept you for who you are, then let me be the first. I've seen enough of you to think that you just got unlucky, you're not really a bad person inside, even if it is dug waaay deep down there, and I'm good at judging character." DC stood back up slowly on shaky legs, pushing the slab covering her legs off with another burst of Digi-Soul. He tried pulling Nell up with him only to see her retreat from him more. "Come on, trust me here. I'll get you out of here…"

"But I can't… I've never…"

"Never had anybody trust you back?" DC guessed.

"How did you…?" DC cupped his hands by her ear and whispered something. "What…?"

"That's my full name," DC said. "Up till now nobody but my family and Chrome knew that, not even Shoutmon. I don't tell just anybody that, so I'm trusting you to keep that a secret. Understood?" Nell nodded her head, not really sure how to feel. "I wouldn't trust you with that unless I accepted you, so now that's sorted, trust me a little! I'm getting you out of here!" DC tried pulling her up again, this time with less resistance. He wrapped her arm around his shoulder as he took a few laboured steps out the room. The ground shook underfoot, sending them back to the floor.

"Leave me already, just go on!" Nell cried. "You can't carry the two of us back…"

"Oh enough with the melodrama! I'm getting you out of here and that's final!" DC pulled them both back up, his breathing ragged as he took a few dizzy steps before running again.

_Where's he getting his energy from? _Nell thought to herself. _He's already used so much power, if he works himself up anymore… _They collapsed again, the floor beneath their feet rumbling even more than before. Explosions began going off around them, panels falling to the floors beneath them, steam and odd liquids being released from the now exposed pipes and wires, cables sparking in the air dangerously. The air was thick with the smell of melted wires and dull booms and tearing metal drummed against their ears. _I have to do something… I can't let DC be the only one who puts in so much effort…_

"Darn it all!" DC yelled, pounding his fist against the steel floor as he collapsed yet again. "I can't give up so easily. Not yet, not like this…"

"DC, rest up," Nell said. "This whole place is probably gonna blow soon."

"All the more reason to get us out of here!" DC yelled, trying to stand up again and failing.

"No, I've got some power left… You don't worry about a thing, I'll protect us both!" The intensity of the explosions doubled, flames engulfing everything they touched, electricity cruelly zapping whatever they came into contact with. Nell closed her eyes, the scales covering her body hardening as she drew from her reserves of power. _It's time to see what it's like, to fight for the other side! _The ground beneath them split, the heavens above shattered, and the world fell into chaos, fire filling the air around them. Then, nothing…

. . .

_Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight The Power… Fight the Power… Fight the Power…_

. . .

"Return, Takuya, Takato, Queen Bee, and the entire Xros Heart Army!" Hiro yelled, sucking all of their forces back into the Darkness Loader. The whole battlefield completely levelled from the force of the explosion, an intense wave of compressed air pushing its way among the forces fighting below. Rocks shattered from the blow, taking digimon along with them, and the rocky uneven ground levelled straighter than a ruler. The mushroom cloud explosion from the fortress sent Ceresmon spinning through the air, all control gone before she crashed onto the top of the cliff where they started, sliding through the dirt before they came to a standstill. Chunks of burning metal accompanied the explosion, raining down like falling meteors, crushing what little resistance there was left that hadn't retreated already. The whole sky looked dim compared to the blaring light of the explosion, blinding everybody who was there beneath its red glare. Ikki wasn't entirely sure what kind of physics was going on in that blast, but even its mushroom shape warped and changed, forming a massive spinning red V.

All sense of time was lost, and anywhere between ten seconds and ten minutes passed before the explosion finally died down, the havoc it wreaked still prevalent in the air, but by then the very force of the explosion coupled with their exhaustion had already knocked most of them out, their minds slipping from the realm of the conscious. Hours might have passed before they all began to awaken. Slowly, Ikki stood up again, his whole body aching with each movement he made.

"Ugh, what the heck was that?" Akkia asked groggily as she awoke to. Ikki didn't know at the very least, and he couldn't care less with how he felt. He really didn't need to check to know there was nothing left of the battlefield or the people that fought on it, but still he took a peak over Ceresmon Mega's tired body. Sure enough, all the grass had been burnt to ashes, and data was floating into the air like red and yellow fireflies, and even the water from the waterfall had been completely vaporised. Chrome pushed Ikki violently out of the way, scanning the scarred field for any trace of his partner.

"DC… Of all the stupid things that you could've done, this was by far the stupidest one of them all!" Chrome's eyes lay on the enormous crater, just as wide if not wider than the whole fortress. If he could, Ikki was pretty sure that tears would be filling Chrome's eyes right now.

"Chrome… I'm sorry," Puttycat said, patting him on the back.

"What's with all the waterworks?" Samantha said. "There's still something over there! Look! I think I've had enough waterworks for one day…" Everybody followed Samantha's finger to the side of the enormous crater. It was hard to see at such a distance, and Ikki almost thought it was simply his imagination, but there it was, a dull pink glow off in the distance.

"What're we waiting for? Let's go!" Jyarimon yelled before flopping on his face into the dirt, too exhausted to hop anymore.

"We're already so exhausted, I'm not exactly sure that we can actually get all the way there now," Leo said.

"I still can!" Lilymon yelled. "Me and Stingmon can still fly a little bit longer, so we can probably carry Chrome and one other person."

"And I can take Jyarimon," Queen Bee said from within the Darkness Loader. Queen Bee jumped out, her medaparts scratched and dented, but still useable. She picked up Jyarimon while Chrome held onto Lilymon's arms as she flew into the air.

"Alright, I'll go to," Ikki said.

"No, you won't," Yami said, pushing him back to the ground as he got up to go to Stingmon. "You're totally spent and so is everybody else. It would be best if only they went after him because they're partnered up with DC, the rest of us are in no condition to go anywhere though. We need to rest, tend to the wounded, and make sure that everybody's okay. When we're done with that, we need to prepare to go back to the Real World. Already we've stayed in this place for way too long."

"Besides, what about us?" Takuya asked from within the Xros Loader. Both Gallantmon and the normal Aldamon shot out, both of them covered in burns and cuts all over their bodies before they shrunk back down to their human forms, Takato splitting up from Guilmon. "We've also got to get back to our own homes. Sucks though we didn't meet up with the others. I wanted to meet Mimi again!"

"Hey, you weren't called back just to meet up with girls!" Takato scolded.

"Easy I'm jokin! Lighten up already! Geez you were more fun when we were the same age!"

"Sorry, still all tensed up after fighting that kid for so long…"

"The kid?" Ikki asked. "Did he have beetle medabots?"

"Yeah, annoying guy. It was like he could cancel our every move! It wasn't an easy fight I'll tell you that!"

"Did you capture him or something?"

"No, he might have escaped, but then again that blast was pretty big. Who knows _what _happened to him." Ikki let out a breath of tensed up air.

"Well then, our big digital adventure is finally over… Let's just hope that DC is okay…"

. . .

_The Power to Fight, The Power Within..._

_. . ._

"DC, wake up… … DC… ..."

"I don't wanna go to school mom…"

"DC!"

"Huh? What?" DC's eyes creaked open slowly, his head still ringing in pain. Nell's face was the first thing he saw, her eyes staring at him in concern. Immediately he jumped in shock, banging his head against a hard object before he clutched his head in pain, choosing to stay on the ground. He rolled back, only to see a thick purple dome made of glass or some odd material blocking his way. "What the heck is this?" He was trapped in the middle of a cramped glass dome, or some kind of dome at least. From the low buzzing sound it made, it was probably formed from some kind of meda-energy or Digi-Soul.

"It's a force field," Nell said. "I made it to try and keep out the blast. We were right in the heart of it, I'm surprised I managed to hold out in the first place actually, but somehow I held on."

"You… blocked the whole explosion?" DC asked in surprise.

"Not all of it, but I stopped the real danger, so we shouldn't be too harmed. Though it looks like the rampant amounts of Digi-Soul it released might have affected you a bit."

"What do you mean? What're you talking about?"

"Well… I don't really know what happened but… Well it's nothing too bad, just one of your eyes… Kind of… Sort of changed colours…"

"Huh? Really? It changed colours? Which one? Which one? To what colour?"

"It looks like… your left eye… It's turned yellow I think, it's like a toned down version of when you were fighting. It's weird, and kinda cool…"

"Thanks! I think… Um… Nell? Can you stop staring into my eyes? It's kinda weird…"

"I am? Sorry, it's just that, the yellow, it looked cool, haha…" Nell averted her gaze, both of their faces burning bright red.

"Uh, it's alright I guess, you kinda did save us both so no harm done right? Haha, haha…" The silence was heavy. "Umm… This is awkward…"

"You just had to say it didn't you?"

"Sorry, sorry… Okay, should have seen this coming I guess… Can't you open up this thing anyway?"

"Huh? Oh, uh… yeah, sorry…" The force field opened up around them, both Nell and DC standing up rapidly, awkwardly looking away.

"Well, that's an interesting way to meet new people!"

"Yeah, interesting…" Even with all of the open space between them now, the silence still felt heavy.

"DC!" Chrome yelled. DC's head jerked to the direction of the sound, a huge smile gracing his face. Chrome released Lilymon's hands, rolling as he hit the dirt to soften his landing before the two of them ran towards each other. "Chrome! You're also alive! Boy am I glad to see…" Chrome tripped him up, sending DC straight back to the ground.

"You stupid idiot! You had all of us worried sick over you!" he yelled. "What would we have done if you hadn't come back in one piece?" Lilymon picked DC back up dusting off his clothes.

"Geez, sorry bro, at least one person's happy to see me… Right Lilymon?" A dull thud sounded as a fist collided with DC's face, sending him back to the ground.

"What the heck are you doing Lilymon?!" Stingmon asked in shock as he landed next to her.

"Slapping some sense into this guy!" she replied. "Making us worry like that…"

"Slapping?! That was a solid punch to the fist! You _open _your hand when you slap someone?"

"What?" Lilymon looked at her hand, only then noticing it was clenched. "Oh, sorry! I didn't even notice!" DC got up dizzily, Nell grabbing his shoulders before he could fall over again. Queen Bee landed with Jyarimon in her arms. Jyarimon bounced off, bouncing towards DC.

"Shoutmon? That you? Heck you look really small, you been eating r-YOWCH!" DC swore under his breath as Shoutmon's jaws latched onto his arm. DC swung his arm in the air rapidly trying to get him off, but Jyarimon only bit down harder. "Stop biting me man! OW! That hurts sooo much! Stop it! Stop it now! And stop crying to!"

"Shut up!" Jyarimon yelled, tears rolling down his face. "I can't believe you! You were going to get yourself killed and leave me and Chrome alone! You selfish, selfish guy! You're the stupidest General a digimon could have!" Jyarimon let go as DC slowly pulled him off his arm, patting him on the head comfortingly.

"I know already, and I'm real sorry. I'm the stupidest General and Medafighter in the world, and I'm sorry. Luckily things turned out okay, so no need to be mad. Nell actually saved my life, right?"

"I was only returning the favour, right?"

"Say what you want, but you were just being nice after all weren't you?" Nell smiled to herself.

"So maybe I was… Funny, didn't think anybody would call me nice anytime soon…"

"Be glad you're getting called anything but stupid right now," DC said with a smile.

"**That's because you are stupid!" **all the digimon and medabots yelled at once. They all laughed together as they got ready to depart.

"Hurry up Nell, you'll get left behind if you wait any longer!" DC yelled, placing Jyarimon on his head as he walked back to the rest of the group.

"Heh? You want me to come along?"

"Now duh! I said that I'd chill with you didn't I? So hurry up!"

"You… you were serious?"

"Iwe, we're leaving! Hurry or we'll leave you!"

"R-right!" Nell quickened her pace, matching the others as DC began recounting the 'brave story' of how he rescued Nell, taking every measure he could to exaggerate and sound more heroic. _So _this _is what friends are like… Even when they're mad at each other, they keep supporting each other whenever they need help, and correct each other when they're wrong… And more than that, they have fun to. I'm not sure I ever had fun with the Legend Army now I think about it, so maybe it is time that I see things through a different viewpoint?_

The group walked off, leaving the scars of the battle behind them in their past, a new friend added to their midst. Now all that was left, was the next step. The next step to whatever the future would hold…


	33. Back to the Basics

**I haven't updated in months because recently my main focus has shifted to my Digimon story, **_**This is Spirit: Ghosts of the Past**_** and I haven't had as much time for Clash of Souls, despite being the baby that started me off. (If you're a digimon fan, I seriously advise you to read Ghosts, not only is it a sequel to this, but its freaking awesome and has fifteen chapters out already!) With school about to start with my A-Level course starting, I may have even less time for anything as sad as that sounds. So here's one for everyone who's waiting, enjoy it. It's my pride-filled work. Medabots forever!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Robotboy, Robotboy is owned by Cartoon Network and stuff, but not me. Not mine. Obviously I don't own Medabots, Beyblade or Digimon either as I've mentioned long ago in a distant past, and this is non-profit.**

**This is the Real Deal Presents:**

**This is Spirit! Clash of Souls!**

**Chapter 33: Back to the basics**

The group had gathered in Minstrel Village, Shoutmon's hometown, battered and bruised, bandages wrapped all around them. Ryuga's arm was in a splint, his arm still recovering. The whole journey back on Ceresmon was still fresh on their minds, the memories of Yami screaming at both Ryuga and DC for their irresponsibility still vivid within everybody's recollection. Also, with all the fighting out of the way, DC had begun to go slightly green from the height. With no fighting to distract him, it was almost impossible to ignore how high up they were. A bandage was still wrapped around Ikki's head, Akkia was using a pair of crutches, and Shoutmon, despite having become his full size again, had a large scar across his nose, a small plaster placed neatly over it. The most radical change was in Dorumon. No longer in his fuzzy wolf-self, the metal plates that normally only appeared during Digivolution where already on him even in rookie form, his wings bandaged up with bolts sticking out of them.

"Once you guys return, your Medabots should be in pretty much perfect condition," Hiro said. "Your medaparts shouldn't have accumulated much physical damage having only been digitally copied, but their durability would have seriously dropped so you better get that checked out. Especially any Medabot that was involved in a DigiXros. Lastly…" Hiro looked at the Xros Loader in DC's hand. "Don't try and DigiXros in the real world. Your medaparts aren't meant to move like that, if you try it you might just end up tearing your Medabot to pieces."

"Right, I get it," DC said, staring at his Xros Loader sadly. "I'll just be a regular Medafighter again. It'll suck, but Chrome and I have gotten through everything before, we can do it again."

"Yeah," Ikki agreed. "All of us have gotten a lot tougher thanks to this. Even if we can't fuse, we're still the strongest the world has got. The Leader of the Legend Army might've gotten away for now, but he won't be able to escape forever."

"Yeah, we're still here to stop him next time he shows himself!" Metabee yelled. "Or if it's not us, the next generation will be able to do it!"

"It still doesn't feel over though," Samantha said slowly. "Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting a bad vibe about all of this…"

"Well what're we meant to do? We can't Metabee-bop the guy if we don't know where he is! Let's just go home and win the Battle of the Beasts. He'll turn up when he turns up. Besides, he can't do anything anymore! The only Fragment left alive is BlackShoutmon right? The Galaxy Medal, well if Peppercat was the Galaxy Medal then we're safe!"

"Still though, what happens to Nell? It's not like we can take her home to her parents or anything, and if the cops found out she was working with the Legend Army…"

"Ah don't worry about it!" DC yelled. "I'll take care of that little issue! For now, you guys just go on and focus on winning, leave the small details to me!"

"You're not going to the tournament to?"

"My team got knocked out last time, remember? If I was as tough back then as I am now then maybe we would've won but it's too late to be having regrets now!"

"That's my general for you!" Shoutmon yelled energetically, patting him on the back roughly. "A man to the end, living a life of no regrets! So you guys… have to go, right?"

"Yeah, we can't stick around any longer. Ikki's match is gonna start tomorrow or something, and Dr Aki is gonna wonder where we are, so we've gotta get going now."

"Okay, the Digi-Port's set up," Hiro said, holding a small television set. "I borrowed this from the village chief, we should be able to get out through here if it's the same one we entered through. Ready guys?" Everybody nodded their heads, standing by the set.

"So this is finally it," Lilymon said slowly. "You guys are already going back. It felt like it was so long, and yet it's been too short… Are you sure you can't stay a little bit longer?"

"No, the Digital World isn't my world," DC said. "I'm not a Tamer, I'm a Medafighter, and I can't go in and out of this place whenever I want, so now is the only time I can leave or I'll be trapped here."

"You know kiddo, sticking here with us wouldn't be such a bad thing you know," Etemon said. "We'd love to go on tour with you by our side, the way it's meant to be!"

"I'll even learn to drum!" Elecmon said. "We'll be able to make the Dark Network a real band!" DC shook his head. He crouched low by Elecmon, placing a hand on his head.

"No, the Dark Network don't need me, they need you right now. You're gonna be the drummer that holds them together aren't you?"

"But all the stories I heard of Leomon… I can't really live up to his name can I?"

"You won't if you keep thinking like that! You don't need to be Leomon to hold these guys together, you just need to be the best that you can be, and who knows? You might make a better drummer than Leomon ever was! So promise me that once I come back, you'll have a new song to play for me." DC held out his pinkie finger out to Elecmon. "Pinkie swear it, that way you can't break your promise." Elecmon nodded his head, wiping away the tears in his eyes. DC stood up again, looking at Stingmon now.

"DC… you'll come back, right?" Stingmon asked.

"Of course, who do you think I am? Dude, I know there's something's that you aren't exactly proud of doing in your past, but you've proven yourself to a lot of people now. You're a hero just like the rest of us, so don't go doing anything stupid again when I'm gone, right?" Stingmon nodded his head.

"You saved me when I was lost. I will repay the favour one day, you can count on that." Finally, he turned to Lilymon and Shoutmon.

"Hey, you two. Aw come on, don't start crying before I even start speaking!" Tears were rolling down Lilymon and Shoutmon's cheeks in torrents.

"**We…We're not crying!**" they sobbed, hastily trying to wipe away their tears.

"Just, shut up okay?" Shoutmon yelled.

"Now what're you mad at me for?"

"You come and turn the tide of the Legend Army and unite all of us just to run away again? That just doesn't seem fair to me. I wanted to show you around my home, the Digital World, all the sights to see and all of my friends, not leave like this…"

"Exactly," Lilymon added. "You couldn't have stayed just a few more days could you? You haven't even heard us perform yet…"

"Well why can't you come with me instead?"

"It's not that simple… The Digital World's our home, and we're a band, we've got a duty to our fans to stay here. Not just that either, but we're probably the only real fighters in our village. If the Legend Army comes back, we're the only one who can defend our home…"

"It's the same for us. We've still got loads of human world stuff to do back home to, like finish off school and get jobs and stuff, and finish off the tournament, and if they come back in our world, we'll be the ones beating them _again!_ Don't worry, this isn't goodbye for good," DC said. We'll meet again, I can promise that. We're partners, aren't we? Joined by the soul! So this isn't goodbye, just, see you later." Shoutmon shook his head.

"Idiot… you've always gotta make things seem so simple… Well then, smell ya later, DC. Don't die in the meantime."

"Same to you, Shoutmon." Lilymon wrapped her arms around DC, squeezing him tightly in a hug, his feet hovering off the ground as she picked him up. "Lilymon… you're… crushing me! Stop… squeezing… so tight!" Lilymon dropped him apologetically, tears still rolling down her face.

"Sorry, I just got carried away… Yeah, just don't die, okay? Never make a girl a promise you can't keep, _ever_. Come back to us."

"Don't worry, it's not cool to break promises. I'll keep this one, and you can be sure of that." Hiro held his Digivice out in front of the television, the screen glowing blue.

"Well? You coming?" he asked. DC walked over to it, looking back over his shoulder. He waved slightly before reaching out for the screen. And then, he was gone. Everybody else did the same, disappearing one by one until finally, there was nobody left…

. . .

"Welcome back to the Battle of the Beasts Commemorative competition!" Henry yelled through the bullhorn. The crowd was as loud as ever, their cheering practically raising the roof, but after their weekend of bombs and explosions, Ikki really didn't mind so much anymore. "It's the finale to the American division of the tourney, with team Japan's Raging Beetle squaring it off against America's BBA All-stars! Who will come off on top? Who will return back home in shame? And who will square off against the winners of the other divisions in Russia, Kenya and Canada aaaaalllll the way down in South Africa? There's only one way to find out, keep yourselves seated folks because we're about to find out!" Even all the way from the locker rooms, Samantha could hear his loud booming voice. The regular announcers weren't there this time, but since they'd been in the Digital World, Samantha really didn't know why, so it looked like Henry would be taking over their jobs. He was doing a better job anyway.

"Samantha?" Puttycat asked. "What're you doing?" She was busy prodding a few buttons randomly on her medawatch.

"Nearly done… Okay, transport Peppercat!" A blue electric spark materialised in front of her, the red feline cat medabot appearing before her with her classic parts. "Just configuring the medawatch to summon Peppercat again instead of Spiralkat. I was up all night trying to disassemble the thing into separate medaparts!"

"But why don't you just use the Spiralkat parts? I'm sure you could defeat any enemy with them."

"I don't think those parts are even legal in the first place, and if they are I still don't want to use them. I want to have Peppercat back the way it used to be, and Spiralkat just reminds me of bad memories, even if they're really cool medaparts." She pulled Peppercat's medal out of her medawatch, spiral shaped scratch marks running around it, and placed it back inside Peppercat's back, shutting the hatch apprehensively. Peppercat hadn't talked or moved since after the battle. She did say she needed to hibernate after using so much power, but it was still worrying. "Peppercat? You there?" Peppercat's eyes flashed on as she turned to face her.

"Samantha? Where am I?"

"Peppercat!" She wrapped her arms around her partner, squeezing tightly. "You really _are _back!"

"Of course I'm back! I've got a _lot _to tell you about the Legend Army…" She was interrupted as the rest of the team entered the Locker room. It felt lonely without the usual flood of people. Ryuga, Yami, DC, Hiro… all of them had their own agendas, but to Samantha it still felt empty.

"Okay guys, team BBA are pretty bad news if you try to fight them normally," Leo said. "You remember how they took down DC's team. Honestly, I think their Medabots and Beyblades are still stronger than ours in the first place, but I think we've got a bit of experience fighting people who are overpowered after our trip to the Digital World. We don't know their running order, but the kid with the transforming Medabot looks like their ace. He'll probably go last, so that means Ikki goes last to counter him. Samantha will go first and try to surprise them. I know for a fact that she's the most improved out of us all with both Spiralkat and the Dragoon bit-beast so they have no data on her. When she wins, they'll get more cautious and send their second best second, and that's time for me to go out and squash them. So Samantha first, use Dragoon if they have a Beyblade, me second, Ikki third, agreed?" Everybody nodded their heads. "Then let's do this. Team Raging Beetle!"

They trooped back out of the Locker rooms into the stadium, their eyes focused in determination. The roar of the crowd hit them like a tidal wave, drowning out all else. Team Raging Beetle sat down on the benches on one side while opposite the ring, the opposing team was seated.

"Will the first combatants please step forward to the arena!" Henry yelled. Samantha stood up, cracking her knuckles as she walked towards the ring. A boy in a yellow jacket and blue jeans stepped forward, bobbing his head to music from a pair of headphones. Nobody could forget him. Matthew Danube, the one who knocked DC out of the competition.

"Good luck Boss!" Peppercat called.

"You can do it Samantha!" Puttycat added.

"Knock his teeth out!" an aggressive voice yelled from the stands. Samantha turned her head to the source of the sound. DC was cheering just as enthusiastically as everybody else, if not more so, and by his side was Nell. Not just them either. Ryuga, Hiro, Yami… all of them were there to cheer them on. Samantha clenched her fists tightly, her chest tightening in anticipation.

_Everybody's counting on me, _she thought to herself. _I can't let them down here, not now!_

"Hey, where are you looking?" Matthew called. Samantha's attention turned back to Matthew, the ring before them sinking into the floor and getting replaced with a Bey Stadium. "Your opponent is me, don't you forget it!"

"Yeah, I know. This one's for DC!"

"For DC? What hope do you have of beating me when that guy lost? Our data says you're only an above average Medafighter, rated somewhere in the top fifty in your country. As for your Beyblade, it doesn't even have a bit-beast!" Samantha wanted so badly to just call out 'that's what you think,' but the element of surprise would do her more good.

"Bit-beast or not, I'll still tear you apart! Prepare to have the screws put to ya!" Samantha placed her Beyblade inside her launcher, holding it as steady as she could. She took a few steps backwards away from the stadium.

"I already know this trick," Matthew said. "You get a running start so you can knock your enemy out of the stadium in one go and increase your spin-speed. Such a lame trick won't work on me." Samantha stayed totally silent, simply staring ahead at her. "Yo, why aren't you talking? Puttycat got your tongue?" No answer. Matthew growled angrily, holding his own launcher up.

"Three… two… one… **Let it Rip!**"

Samantha sprinted up to the lip of the stadium, ripping out her Beyblade, wind tearing around her arm in a cyclone as she pulled. Matthew's eyes popped wide open at the sheer display of force, cracks building up in a crater beneath her. She couldn't blame him, she was surprised herself. Pulling so hard the ground broke? The audience rose to their feet in surprise. Matthew pushed his launcher forward, his orange Dranzer Beyblade spinning erratically through the Dish. Dragoon shot forward like lightning, just barely missing Dranzer.

"Hah! You missed! What kinda shot was that?"

"I wasn't aiming for you stupid!" Samantha yelled. Matthew stared back at the ring in confusion before noticing. Dragoon was spiralling rapidly around the stadium, circling round and around, wind building up around it. A huge blue wall of wind built up all the way around Dragoon's trajectory, a massive blue tornado forming.

"Wow, the battle's already going at full speed!" Henry yelled. "Samantha's pulling out the legendary Dragoon Storm attack already! No wait… this is… this is…"

"Go Dragoon!" Samantha yelled. "I learnt a little trick when fighting in the Digital World, spin speed on a Beyblade isn't the only way to make tornadoes, their trajectory is also important!"

"Yes it is folks! This is the attack used by the Legendary Ginga, the **Pegasis Tornado Wing!**" Matthew shielded his eyes, dust flying around the stadium wildly.

"I'll admit, that was a pretty wicked shot! It looks like you're a bit above what our data says. That's normal for a Beyblader, to draw out power beyond our expectations, I'll just adjust for that and destroy your wings! You're Never Gonna Take me Down!" Matthew flicked a switch on his launcher. Guitars blared from the launcher, hard rock shaking the arena.

"What're you doing?!"

"Dranzer, **Beat box Solo!**" The blue tornado shrunk, tearing itself to pieces as Dranzer zigzagged across the stadium floor in time with the beat, smashing itself against Dragoon. "If I'm correct, because you're a Medafighter with no Bit-Beast, you don't have very good control over your blade, relying on physical changes rather than energy, so once you've done an attack you can't use anymore wind based moves. There goes your Tornado Wing and Dragoon Storm in one shot!" Samantha clenched her fists angrily as Dragoon took blow after blow, sparks flying after each collision.

_This guy's really done his homework… If they had data on me now I'd be toast. His blade is also gen three though, so I shouldn't have too much trouble keeping up with his pace. First I've gotta do something about his huge weight disc…_

Dragoon went scuttling across the floor, wobbling slightly before regaining its balance. Dranzer charged for it again, tilted slightly as it charged. Samantha peered closely at the blade. _Huge weight disc with a massive range, high speed on straights and on curves to… wait…_

"Dragoon, let's try a little bit of defence!" Dragoon shot to his right, Dranzer stopping momentarily before changing direction, crashing into him like a piston. "Again Dragoon!" Dragoon slipped to its left this time, Dranzer following with the same movement. "That's it! Your blade… its fake isn't it?"

"It still qualifies under official BBA association rules…"

"But it's made by a random copy-cat company, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't matter does it?"

"I knew it, it's just like DC's Medabot, while its specs are pretty good, it has stand-out design flaws because the creators didn't know how Beyblades actually work! Like that stupid huge buzz saw weight disc!"

"What're you talking about? This same disc is doing more attacking than your attack ring! I'm tearing you to pieces!" Samantha smiled, a gleam in her eyes.

"Dragoon, it's time to do this! Let's show him how we do things back home!" Dragoon dodged to the side again.

"Don't you ever get tired of that?!" Dranzer stopped, the tiles below him tearing apart from the friction.

"**Dragoon Storm Attack!**" Dragoon shot out of the Beyblade, roaring angrily as he surfaced, his blue aura flaring like fire.

"What?! Since when did you have a…" Matthew didn't get a chance to finish as Samantha's Beyblade crashed into his Dranzer, sending it tottering away, wobbling madly. Not giving it a chance to recover, her blade kept crashing into it again and again.

"Wow, what an upset this is folks!" Henry yelled. "Here's a surprise not even the BBA could prepare for, Samantha being in possession of a Bit-Beast! This could change the whole battle!"

"You use your weight disc to give your blade an extra burst of speed, making it touch the ground and dart towards my own blade," Samantha explained. "The problem with that is that while turning your blade seriously slows down, giving me a chance to attack you!"

"So you figured out how I turn, that doesn't mean you know how to beat me! Dranzer, it's time you show yourself!" The Dranzer blade began glowing bright orange, each of Dragoon's attacks having no effect on it.

"And here it comes! It's Matthew's ace, the Spiral Dranzer Bit-Beast!" A massive phoenix emerged from the blade, spitting fire around it. It crashed into the Dragoon dragon just as their blades clashed against each other, flames erupting around them from the clash. Dragoon dug his claws into Dranzer's shoulders, pushing him to the ground. The crash shook the very stadium, Dranzer flapping frantically to get free.

"Spiral Dranzer, **Giga Flame Drill Attack!**" Dranzer roared, fire oozing off of him. Dragoon flew off of him, getting tossed like a ragdoll as Dranzer took to the skies.

"No, Dragoon! Get out of there!" Samantha screamed. _If that hits, I'm finished! I'll be crushed right into the ground and… wait a second, what if I _didn't _go into the ground… _

The Dragoon Beyblade shimmied away from both the Dranzer blade and Spiral Dranzer himself.

"Will you quit running away from me?" Matthew cried.

"Shut up, this is my style of fighting!" Honestly, running away felt all too familiar, but not this time. There was no running in a tournament, this time she was in it to win it. Her Beyblade darted over to the very edge of the stadium, dancing just on its lip. The blue dragon surrounding it roared at Dranzer, almost in a challenge.

"You… you're going to get yourself killed!" Matthew roared.

"I told you, this is my style of fighting!"

"Samantha, what're you doing?" Leo roared. "Get away from the edge!"

"No…" Akkia said. "I know what she's doing. "It's a stupid strategy, but right now it's her only hope of winning…"

"Are you mocking me?!" Matthew yelled. "You stupid little… Spiral Dranzer, tear her blade apart!" Spiral Dranzer flew back down to the earth, joining up with his blade as they both charged for Dragoon. "We'll see how you like the joint powers of me and Dranzer together! Dranzer, use the **Fire Arrow **and **Giga Flame Drill together!**" Samantha didn't bother answering, instead staring intently at her Beyblade.

_Come on… come on… just a little bit closer… _"Now Dragoon! **Fire Arrow!**"

"What?!" Dragoon shot down the slope at Dranzer, wind slicing through the stadium. The two collided, sparks flying wildly everywhere as they smashed into each other, green Meda-energy flying out of the mix.

"Wow, just wow!" Henry screamed excitedly. "A clash like this hasn't been seen since the World Robattle Championship three years ago! But wait, it looks like… Dragoon is…"

"It's over Samantha, I've gotta hand it to you, you sure do put the slam down, for a girl!"

"Being a girl has nothing to do with this!" Samantha roared angrily. "I know for a fact that Hurricane Sally could tear you to pieces and she's a girl to!"

"Whatever you say, but this battle's mine!"

"No… not yet. This fight ain't over yet. The battle isn't over until there's only one Blade standing!" Matthew's eyes widened in shock.

"Quit bluffing! You've got nothing left to give. There's no way you do, our data says you should be out of Spiral Energy by now, our data can't be wrong!" Dragoon blasted out of the stadium, smoke coming off of the blade as he went sky high, the blue dragon accompanying it. "Dragoon is out of the stadium!"

"Tch... A half-baked imitation attack like that won't slow down my Dranzer. Don't bother bluffing next time, you were pretty impressive anyway."

"I'm not done yet…"

"What're you talking about? I blew your Bey sky high."

"Really? Check again, this battle's just getting started!" Matthew stared at her questioningly before noticing a glint in the sky above him. He looked up, gasping in surprise.

"Wait, it's not over yet folks!" Henry yelled. "Dragoon's still in the battle!" Dragoon was spinning high above their heads, wind building up around him as he spun. The Dragoon spirit enveloped the blade for a few seconds, roaring angrily before disappearing again.

"No, no!" Matthew roared. "This can't be happening, this can't…"

"Dragoon, it's time to end this! Fleria, lend me just a little bit of your power here! Dragoon! **Pegasis Shooting Star Attack!**" Dragoon shot to the earth like a meteor, slicing through the air itself as he travelled. He crashed into Dranzer, spinning and digging into him. Dranzer flipped through the air, his weight disc completely shattered as he collapsed by Matthew's feet.

"W-wow, that was incredible! Functions ceased, the winner is, Samantha and Dragoon!" The crowd erupted into cheers as Dragoon shot back into Samantha's hand. She winced as it crashed into her palm.

"Ouch… I need to get myself a pair of gloves…" Matthew picked up his Beyblade, staring at the blade questioningly.

"Our data was wrong? That doesn't make sense. We adjusted for your growth in raw statistics and strategic planning, there's no way any one of you could've improved so much in so little time…"

"It's because you're good at planning, but your instincts are a little dull. I'm still kinda new to this game, but in Beyblade and Robattling you need a sharp eye. Pay attention to your surroundings and your enemy. Data never reads the same twice, you can't rely on it in a situation like a battle. In a battle, anything can happen, even miracles." With that, Samantha turned away from the stadium, leaving Matthew behind as he stared at his blade. Samantha took a seat by her teammates, soaking in the congratulations from her team.

"Well, I guess it's my turn now," Leo said as he stood up. He walked over to the stadium. Opposing him was another Beyblader, with unremarkable black hair and dark, narrow eyes, an oversized Red T-shirt with an elaborate gold dragon design and black pants. He held up his Beyblade, his eyes focused on Leo.

_He doesn't look special but I can already feel it coming off of him, _Leo thought to himself. _He's good, very good. I can't get overconfident… _"Transport, Saikachis!" Saikachis materialised in a blue ball in front of him, ready for battle already.

"Ah, you're the one with two medabots aren't you?" the boy asked. "Your Saikachis has above average firepower, with a custom Prominence attack part. In that case, I'll have to go all out right from the start." He held his launcher above his head, gripping it tight enough to make his knuckles go white.

**Custom Rock Cerberus: Tecmo, Heavy Metal System**

**Beyblader: Kai Wei Wang**

**Specialty: Defence**

**Bit-Beast: Cerberus**

**Signature: Cerberus Gate**

"Three… two… one… **Let it Rip!**"

Saikachis charged forward while Kai Wei brought his launcher down with force, ripping the blue and yellow disc-like blade out in the process.

"Cerberus, use the **Bear Claw Attack!**" he roared. Cerberus crashed into the ground, an earthquake racking the stadium. Saikachis flailed his arms around wildly trying to regain his balance before Cerberus crashed into his forehead, knocking him to the ground.

**Warning. 45% damage to head medapart.**

"Getting serious already aren't you?" Leo asked with a smile. "In that case… Saikachis, pepper him with machinegun fire!" Saikachis sprung back to his feet, spraying bullets at the blade. It didn't even try to evade, taking the shots as a cloud of dust hid him. "I thought you'd be better than that, guess I was wrong!"

"Guess again," Kai Wei said with an evil gleam. The dust cleared, revealing Cerberus completely unscathed. "My Cerberus has several parts borrowed from a Rock Leon and Rock Zurafa, heavily defensive Beyblades, but its energy ring and Bolt Core are still Cerberus's heavy attacking types, providing him with perfect defence and perfect speed! You cannot-"

"Saikachis, missiles!" Two missiles blasted out of his horns, flying towards Cerberus. This time, Cerberus shot to his right, the explosion going off right by him. Rocks and dirt rose to the air with the explosion, Cerberus wobbling slightly as his balance was threatened. "Now, create some distance and rifle him on the edge of his blade, throw his spin off!" Bullets crashed into Cerberus, his balance suffering more from each blow.

"Stop that!" Kai Wei yelled.

"Like I'm gonna! If you're defensive and fast at the same time, I just can't let you move and beat you in a test of endurance! I've got a medabot, they keep moving, but if I keep attacking a Beyblade, no matter how weak the attacks are you'll eventually stop spinning!"

"You don't understand how much I hate you right now… Cerberus, perfect ball defence!" Cerberus glided towards the centre of the stadium, not moving an inch from his position as he simply spun on.

"I thought I just told you, defence won't work!" Kai Wei smiled, even as his blade was hit with another storm of rounds. "I've got a bad feeling about this… Saikachis, don't let him follow through with his plan or it's over for us! Prominence cannon now!" Electricity sparked between the two huge horns in front of his torso, arcing backwards and forwards rapidly.

"Kiss your bot goodbye!" Saikachis roared.

"That's my line!" Metabee yelled from the benches.

"Like I care, it's over!" A huge orange laser beam came out of his torso, heading towards Cerberus.

"Now, Cerberus!" The attack connected, the laser enveloping the entire Beyblade. The beam warped around the blade, spiralling wildly around it before it disappeared. Cerberus was still spinning, now glowing bright yellow, lightning crackling around it.

"What the heck? It's still intact?" Kai Wei laughed ominously.

"I'm not like Matthew… We know now that our data can't accurately judge your power, so they sent me, somebody who can withstand any attack. Ever guarding the gates of hell, defending against those who would intrude upon my domain, beware of the **Cerberus Gate!**" An enormous glowing beast emerged from the blade, red strands of energy dripping off of it as it rose. It looked like an enormous three headed dogs, chains wrapped around its shoulders. All three of its heads howled into the sky, each head roaring at a different pitch in a cacophony of death. Saikachis backed away warily, optics wide in terror. Leo racked his mind for a plan, finding none that looked like they would work.

"You're… Argh, Saikachis, use the Medaforce!"

"As if I'd allow that!" Kai Wei yelled, a maniacal grin plastered to his face as he cackled in joy. "Cerberus, devour them!" Cerberus howled into the air as multi-coloured sparks came off of his blade, flames leaping into the air like fireworks, the howling scream of fireworks filling the air. "The BBA is known for letting those who train under them utilize their blessed talents to the maximum, transferring their skills to their blade! While Matthew's skills lay in music, my talents have been passed along generations as the art of fireworks. My Cerberus is outfitted with numerous Nano machines packed to the brim with explosives that once lit by the flames of hell form a dazzling show for all who watch!"

"Big deal, they're just fireworks!"

"Then I suppose you wouldn't mind if I hit your Medabot with these flames would you?"

"Like I'll let you, now Saikachis! **Starlight Explosion!**" Saikachis fired all of his weapons at once, engulfing the stadium with flames. The Cerberus bit-beast stepped forward, roaring angrily. The attacks all exploded prematurely, stopping just inches short from the blade.

"That's the Cerberus Gate attack," Kai Wei said, an evil grin spreading across his face. "It's an attack that momentarily nullifies all live ammunition, and greatly weakens beam weapons. Your Medaforce attack has no effect on us." Saikachis collapsed to one knee, all the energy drained from his body. The blade charged forward, fireworks flying around it like a mad firecracker. Lightning crackled through the air, the lights flashing ominously. Cerberus roared, the very foundations shaking as he clamped his jaws down on Saikachis. An explosion rocked the stadium. Silence filled the air, the only sound being the clinking of an ejected medal on the ground.

"F-functions ceased! The winner is… Kai Wei!" The crowd erupted into cheers. Kai Wei smiling in joy, his blade flying back into his hand.

"I'll admit, you caught us off guard," Kai Wei said. "But that's the only advantage you've got. We're still stronger, faster, and smarter than you." Leo picked up his medal, placing it back into his medawatch, his trashed medaparts transporting away.

"That may be so, but we'll overcome anything you send at us," he said. "We're Team Raging Beetle, our hearts burn brighter than the blazing sun!" Leo turned his back on Kai Wei, a smile on his lips. "Also… that battle was fun. If we ever do meet again, let's have a rematch!" Kai Wei laughed as he also turned away from the stadium.

"Sure, it's not often I get to defeat a Medafighter so powerful. I'll accept a challenge anytime and win, get stronger for me next time so it'll be more even!"

"Oh don't worry, I will. I always do!" They retreated back to their benches.

"Good game man," Akkia said, patting his shoulder.

"Thanks, but they're really strong. They aren't Digital World strong though. If I'd used Blackbeetle instead, I might've stood a better chance. So Ikki, you're up next."

"It's about time!" Metabee yelled, jumping out of his seat energetically, steam puffing out of his horns.

"We'll get them for you Leo, don't worry about a thing!" Ikki said, walking towards the arena. The Bey Stadium sunk into the ground, getting replaced by flat ground as the blonde haired teenager with the backpack stepped forward. Their strongest Medafighter by the looks of him. A small Medabot was standing next to him, the same one that helped defeat DC's team. It looked odd to Ikki. Unlike a normal Medabot that simply had a face plat, this one actually had a mouth that moved, and even the expression on its round blue eyes looked like it could change. It was light blue with darker blue hands and feet, the drum-like horns on its head also being dark blue.

"So you're Ikki Tenryou," he said. "I'm Tommy Turnbull in case you haven't heard of me before."

"Medafighters from America aren't well known back in Japan," Ikki said.

"Oh I'm no Medafighter, though I do repair Medabots a lot. I'm just running errands right now actually!" He scratched the back of his arm sheepishly. "I'm just collecting data on Medabots right now, I'm not really known for being good at Robattles."

"So you're not really here to win are you?"

"Not really, no."

"Then in that case, you don't stand a chance against me and Metabee!"

"I wouldn't get over confident if I were you. Robotboy's taken down a lot tougher enemies than kids with toy robots. Sorry for being blunt but data or no data, you don't stand a chance against him."

"Robotboy ready when Tommy ready," the medabot said, his eyes narrowing to slits and glowing bright blue.

**Saikachis (Metabee): Medabot Corporation**

**Medafighter: Ikki Tenryou**

**Specialty: Seeker Missile**

**Medal Type: KBT**

**Signature: The Medaforce**

**. . .**

**Robotboy: Classified producer**

**Medafighter: Tommy Turnbull**

**Specialty: Weapon mastery**

**Medal Type: AI unit**

**Signature: Super Activate**

_Something doesn't feel right about that medabot, _Ikki thought to himself as he stared it down. _I don't even think it _is _a Medabot… I can't really explain it, but it almost feels like there's no meda-energy coming from it, like it has no medal. That's gotta be the AI unit thing my medawatch is talking about… _"Metabee…"

"I already know, be on guard, this guy smells like a thousand kinds of trouble…"

"Alright, you guys know the rules!" Henry yelled. "First guy to stop the other from functioning wins! Medafighters ready? Medabots, Robattle!"

"Go Metabee!"

"Robotboy, go get 'em!"

The two Medabots charged towards each other, Metabee sprinting while Robotboy flew forwards with jet boots. The two crashed into each other, immediately splitting apart from the impact.

"Metabee, sub machinegun!"

"I'm on it!" Metabee roared, spraying Robotboy with bullets. Robotboy flew around the air, avoiding the bullets with ease."

"Robotboy, use the high power laser, now." Robotboy aimed his fist at Robotboy, a tiny gun popping out of it. Ikki didn't need to be told twice to know that one shot from it could be lethal.

"Dodge it Metabee!" Metabee dived to his side, a tin laser beam frying through his shoulder, inches away from his neck.

**Warning, left arm medapart at 20% damage.**

_I almost forgot what it was like to battle another Medafighter, I'm still not used to it anymore. It feels like home though, this is where I'm meant to be, robattling against other Medafighters!_

"Ro, go," Tommy said.

"Yes Tommy," Robotboy replied, flying down to Metabee.

"Metabee, he's a hand-to-hand combat Medabot in this form, you can't let him get close to you!"

"I know Ikki, but he's just so fast!" Metabee took a punch to the fast, skidding backwards to the edge of the arena.

"Okay Metabee, Action Mode to keep up with him!" Metabee sprinted away from the edge again, his medaparts transforming as he landed on the floor again, this time with wheels. He drove around the arena, Robotboy chasing after him aggressively from the air. Metabee did a full one eighty turn, Robotboy crashing into the ground just behind him, dust rising from the landing. The landing wasn't nearly as rough as it looked as Robotboy was still standing on both feet, his fist planted in the ground. He looked up at Metabee, his eyes narrowed in focused slits.

"You wanna play rough kid? How do you like this?!" Metabee rammed into Robotboy, transforming out of Action Mode as he did so, the two of them tumbling over on the ground.

"Now Metabee, machine gun bullets followed by seeker missiles!" Metabee sprung to his feet instantly, spraying Robotboy with bullets, two missiles following after the fire, exploding on impact with Robotboy.

"A full out Robattle if I ever saw one!" Henry yelled. "Back to the basics, what we've been missing! Robotboy and Metabee are matching each other's moves blow for blow! But while Robotboy still looks like he's in prime fighting condition, Metabee's parts are starting to gather a few dents here and there, nothing major but it could be a serious problem in the long run!" Both Ikki and Tommy could barely even hear Henry, their full attention turned towards the battle.

"Oh yeah, that one got him!" Metabee yelled.

"No, not yet!" Ikki replied. "Add more suppression fire! That's not enough for him!"

"You're the boss!" Metabee let loose more machinegun bullets, the dust cloud simply getting bigger, adding an extra two more missiles. Robotboy walked out of the smoke, barely a dent on his armour, his eyes now glowing red. "What?! All those shots were right on the money! Who is this guy, the freaking Terminator?!" Robotboy's eyes turned blue again, his expression happy and joyful.

"Robotboy loves that movie!" Robotboy said, speaking in third person. "Hasta La Vista, baby!" Robotboy dug his fingers into the ground, picking up an enormous concrete tile. Without warning, he flung it at Metabee.

"Metabee-" Whatever Ikki's order would've been was cut short as Robotboy kicked the tile, the enormous slab splitting into hundreds of pieces. Metabee's eyes widened in shock as he punched and shot all the large pieces, trying desperately to protect himself.

"Ikki, where is he? Where'd he go?!" Metabee looked around, panic plain in his eyes.

"I don't know, I can't see him! He's… Metabee, above you!" Metabee looked towards the sky, a huge slab in the way of his vision. Breaking through the slab fist-first, Robotboy flew down, slamming his fist into Metabee's face. Metabee crashed to the ground, spinning wildly as he slowed to a halt.

**Warning, head Medapart at 40% damage, suppression fire mode disabled due to disorientation.**

"There goes machineguns," Ikki said, gritting his teeth.

"Robotboy is really tearing it up down there," Henry yelled. "With Metabee's aim gone to the wind, Robotboy's got this battle in the bag!" Tommy laughed.

"Didn't I tell you? Robotboy can't be beaten, especially not by your Medabot. I hate to say it, but he's an inferior model!"

"What model he is has nothing to do with this!" Ikki yelled back. "Metabee, can you still stand?"

"Barely," he replied, getting back up on unsteady feet. Robotboy didn't give him a chance, charging at him with his fist extended. Metabee took the blow in his chest, toppling backwards. "Gotcha!" Metabee clutched his hands around Robotboy's fist, tossing him into the ground with force. They both sprung back up onto their feet. "Okay Ikki, what's the situation?"

"Well for starters, I don't think we've so much as dented Robotboy."

"What?!"

"Yeah, my medawatch hasn't alerted me of any damage being dealt to him yet."

"Your medawatch is right," Tommy said. "Ro's been through loads of battles, and he almost hasn't come back from some of them, so I've gotten his armour reinforced multiple times. As it is now it's near indestructible."

"That's straight up cheating!" Metabee yelled. "How're you even allowed to compete with medaparts like that?!"

"It's not cheating," Metabee said. "It's not like we can't find a way to break his armour, and besides, he's fighting us fair and square so far…"

"What're you doing tin-can?" Windstorm screamed from the benches. "You're supposed to be winning!"

"The lil' cloud's right!" Queen Bee added. "Ikki trusted you to this match, you can't let him down!"

"I know, but what am I supposed to do?" Metabee asked.

"This isn't the time to look away!" Tommy said. "Robotboy, go for another round, clothesline him!" Robotboy shot forward, his arm stretched out to his side. Metabee ducked, the attack just barely shooting over his head.

"Darn it, we can't pierce his armour without DigiXrosing to get the Giga Drill Breaker," Ikki mumbled. "But maybe there's no need. We might not be able to break through the armour, but we can probably still deal some internal damage… Okay Metabee, I've got a plan!"

"Anytime now would be nice!"

"Switch to close-up combat!"

"What?! Have you popped a membrane?!"

"I know what I'm doing Metabee, just trust me!"

"I'm totally going to regret this…" Robotboy charged forward, fire blasting beneath his feet. He aimed his fist for Metabee. Metabee caught the blow with his hand, stopping Robotboy dead in his tracks.

"Robotboy, Afterimage."

"Metabee, CQC mode!" Robotboy aimed a flurry of blows at Metabee, each strike flying like lightning. Metabee swayed his head away from each attack, his hands frantically batting away each strike.

"Whoa… I'm doing it, Ikki I'm really doing it!" Metabee swung his leg sharply, the normally wild attack being controlled and precise. Robotboy ducked beneath it, flying backwards with his jet boots. He flew around Metabee in a circle, multiple images of himself appearing around him.

"Metabee, use Medaforce type three!" A green glow radiated off of his whole body, the stadium lights dimming from the raw power.

"I see you!" Metabee roared, punching forward at the wall of Robotboy's around him. Robotboy went flying backwards from the blow, rolling through the ground before correcting himself. Without even giving the audience time to comprehend what had happened, Robotboy dashed forward again, meeting with Metabee's foot.

"I knew it, Formation Cancel destroys the Afterimage formation as well! As long as it's active, Metabee can see Robotboy's movements, even if he can't predict them normally! Bad luck for you, it lasts the whole battle!" True enough, Metabee's green aura only flared brighter as he countered the storm of blows. Robotboy launched into the air, spinning as he dropped his heel onto Metabee's head. Metabee put his arms up, not a moment too soon as the force of the attack formed a crater beneath his feet. With a roar, Metabee pushed Robotboy off of him, firing two more missiles at him. Robotboy went up in smoke, flying higher into the air from the impact. "Metabee, use the Shadow Sword!"

Metabee didn't even bother questioning it, disappearing instantly. A moment later, he appeared in the air next to Robotboy, his fists raining down on Robotboy's body before he kicked him to the ground. Robotboy crashed into the dirt like a meteor, Metabee landing on the ground moments after.

"I-incredible!" Henry screamed. "I've never seen such an intense exchange between two medabots before, especially not from a KBT type like Metabee! I never even got a chance to sneak in a word!"

**Warning, Robotboy leg medaparts at 15% damage. Head medapart at 24% damage.**

"I knew it!" Ikki yelled. "We can't pierce him with regular rounds, but we can deal enough of a shock to his system to hurt him like that!" _If I'd known that was his weakness I would've used Queen Bee, but Metabee can do it to, I know he can!_

"Hey Ikki, how can my body move like that?" Metabee asked, staring at his hands in wonder, steam coming off of them. "That felt like something right out of Dragon Ball Z, or the Matrix or something…"

"Its cause your tin-pet and medaparts still have the physical memory from battling digimon with extreme physical strength, so their data is sort of saved into your medaparts memory. But all that would do is let you react better to speed. The rest comes from when you became StormBeetle. By fusing your medals, you gained some of Windstorm's combat abilities. That's also why you can now also do the Shadow Sword!" _There's some limits though. I can't keep doing this. His medaparts are going to overheat at this rate. He probably can't feel it with how pumped up he is, but that gave his arms an extra fifteen percent damage, and his legs an extra twenty percent. His fists will probably outright break if I keep clashing with him. Since its hurting Metabee almost as much as Robotboy, I've got to find a new strategy, and quickly…_

"Your Medabot's in pretty bad shape isn't it?" Tommy stated.

"Well so is yours," Ikki countered.

"No, not like that. Those attacks are going to destroy Metabee's body aren't they?"

"Wait, what?!" Metabee exclaimed. Tommy continued, ignoring Metabee's intrusion.

"Those attacks aren't meant to be dealt by KBT types. You're discovering something revolutionary to the combat system of the Kabuto model Medabot, but it may come at the cost of your Medabot's body. You sure you wanna risk it?"

"Ikki, I don't care what he says, I'm gonna robattle to the max! I feel more pumped up than I've ever felt in my life! Well, ignoring becoming Storm Beetle. If I don't robattle like that, I feel like I'm gonna explode!" Metabee's parts were glowing red along with his green aura, steam oozing off of his body. He looked like he was going to blow up anyway at the rate he was going at, but Ikki felt the same way.

"We'll do whatever it takes to beat you, don't you forget it! Metabee, switch to armour piercing rounds, we're breaking through his armour!" Metabee held up his rifle, firing with a roar, his arm thrusting backwards with the recoil from the shots. Robotboy ducked beneath the shot, the bullet embedding itself into his left drum. He took to the skies, dodging the shots frantically.

"Ro, use the Afterimage strike!"

"Metabee, now! The Shadow Sword!" Both Robotboy and Metabee disappeared from view, reappearing again on the ground, their forearms crashing into each other, craters forming beneath both of their feet, fire accompanying them from Robotboy's feet and Metabee's horns. They disappeared from view again only to reappear in the air, a large white wave of air erupting between the two of them.

"What're you doing Robotboy? Finish him!" Tommy roared.

"Metabee… We're gonna push ourselves to the max! **King Overdrive activate!**"

"Alright Ikki, I'll draw out every inch of robattle spirit I have!"

**King Overdrive active. All medaparts acting at 150% efficiency.**

They disappeared from view again, this time a whole series of exploding bubbles of air appearing in arena, randomly scattered from the air to the ground.

"Amazing! They're moving so fast they can't be seen by the human eye!" Henry exclaimed excitedly. "There's no telling where they are now!"

_This isn't good, Metabee's taking some serious damage up in there…_

**Warning, all medaparts at 40% damage… 50% damage… 55% … 62% …**

They both separated again, visible once more, both of them covered in scratches and dents, but it was obvious to anybody watching that Metabee was in far worse condition.

"You're strong, I'll give you that!" Tommy yelled. "You're way stronger than our data said you would be! In that case, it's time that we get serious, I've collected all the data I need! Robotboy, **Super Activate!**" Robotboy's eyes turned red as he slammed his fists together. Metabee watched in horror as Robotboy's body grew in size, medaparts unfolding as they were replaced with larger, darker variations of themselves. Robotboy's horns grew larger, curving into horns. He held his fist in front of him, his parts shining, the damage from his smaller outer shell now hidden away.

"Oh boy Ikki, I don't think I can fight that!" Metabee said. Robotboy held out his hands before him, his child-like face completely gone, now replaced by a dark, terrifying mask. His hands transformed, a pair of Gatling guns revealing themselves.

"Metabee, use Arcbeetle's footwork!" Metabee leaped backwards, avoiding a storm of bullets from Robotboy, leaping side to side to throw the shots off.

"Robotboy, weapon change!" Robotboy held his right arm up, his left arm still firing machinegun bullets. He cocked his arm down as if reloading, his hand transforming again into a massive barrel before he aimed it again, firing a missile.

"Metabee, increase the Formation Cancel's range and catch it!" Metabee's green aura flared brighter, more steam coming off of his body. He held his hands in front of him, catching the missile, digging his feet into the ground to try and stop the force before turning it around, sending it right back. Robotboy's bullets peppered the shell, the bomb exploding in the air. Metabee dived through the smoke cloud, planting his fist in Robotboy's face. Robotboy somersaulted through the air, coming to a rest by the edge of the arena, his fists held up, metal shifting around them to the next tool of destruction.

"How many weapons does this guy have?!" Metabee questioned.

"As many, if not more so than Windstorm I bet!" Ikki yelled. "Metabee, AP rounds on his left arm now, don't let him get another weapon!" Metabee fired his rifle right in the middle of Robotboy's hand, the shot flying through the arm and into his bicep.

**Robotboy left arm at 65% damage, mode change limited.**

"Yes, while swapping weapons he's vulnerable!" Robotboy's right arm morphed into a large four barrelled canister, a wick lit just in front of it. The gun spat out fire, flames blazing a trail towards Metabee. Metabee held up his arms in a poor defence, the inferno grilling his medaparts.

"In any other occasion, these flames would be a serious problem, but not with the Second Gear active! Metabee, rip that flamethrower right off!" Metabee sprinted through the flame, punching the gun with all of his might, the flames flying into the air instead of into him. He grabbed the gun, crushing it between his bare hands. With his free hand, Robotboy punched Metabee in the back of the head, sending him sprawling to the ground. Metabee flipped back to his feet, firing wildly into Robotboy's face. It did no good as the titanic Medabots simply morphed his right arm again, a large shield blocking the bullets as his left arm became a large buzz saw, spinning menacingly.

"This battle's gone on way too long!" Metabee yelled. "Ikki, you've got a plan to total this guy once and for all?"

"He's next to invincible, we can't knock him out!" Ikki roared.

"Seriously? So what am I supposed to do?" Robotboy swung the buzz saw at Metabee's head, swinging wildly as Metabee ducked and dodged each attack.

"I'm getting an idea… Okay Metabee, I've figured something out!"

"It better be good!"

"Regular Medaforce isn't going to work on him!"

"_Please _tell me you're joking…"

"It's because he doesn't have a medal, he has an outdated AI system! That's why he can utilize so many weapons, his thought process is binary and very logical, with the ability to adapt and evolve around that into an actual personality, despite how dangerous he is, he's actually an even older model than your old parts! While a Medabot can't handle so many weapons, he can!"

"Why… why does life have to screw me over when I think I've got an advantage…?"

"Relax, I've still got a way to hurt him. Metabee, **King Overdrive, Times Two!**" Metabee kicked the buzz saw out of the way, firing his rifle at the blade till it shattered.

"Yo Ikkster, I can't keep doing that, if I try another dose of the Overdrive now, who knows _what'll _happen to my parts…"

"Trust me Metabee, trust me!" Metabee clenched his fists tightly, his Medaforce green flaring brighter than ever.

"Well, since it's happening, I've totally always wanted to say this, tribute to Dragon Ball right here! **Kaioken Times Two!**" His Medaforce green flashed red, storm-like winds building up around his body.

"No, this isn't right," Tommy said. "With so much energy, it's almost like that Medabot is a nuclear reactor! That kind of power's going to destroy him! Robotboy, stop it now!" Robotboy clenched his hands together, a massive sword materialising between them. He swung the enormous blade at Metabee. With ease, Metabee stopped it with the palm of his hand, stopping the sword dead in its tracks. He crushed the blade, Robotboy withdrawing it warily. "Ro, Afterimage strike!"

"Metabee, Shadow Sword!" Nobody could understand it, but it looked like tens of Metabee's squaring off against tens of Robotboy, the two moving so fast that numerous copies of them were striking at each other. All copies returned to the originals as they crashed their fists against each other's face, both of them getting sent hurtling back towards their Medafighters, battered and bruised.

**Robotboy Medaparts at 65% damage**

**Metabee Medaparts at 95% damage. Warning, systems critical.**

"Heh, is that the best you've got?" Metabee asked, standing back up on shaky legs, wiping the oil from his face. Alien medal symbols were visible in his eyes, the same ones on Windstorm's medal. Robotboy also stood back up, his medaparts shaking, steam coming off of his whole body.

"That's impossible," Tommy said. "Nobody can deal so much damage to Robotboy, nobody ever has before at least. According to our data, it would take three Ikki's to get half that amount of damage…"

"You clearly didn't hear, did you?" Metabee said. "Unless you take the battle seriously, you can't beat us… In case you didn't catch this memo either, it's my laser that's gonna beat you!"

"Metabee, it's time! **Medaforce Type Two!**"

**Medaforce Type 2: Damage Ball active.**

**Medaforce Type 4: Soul Killer unlocked and active.**

Rainbow coloured energy drowned out everything in the arena, light filling the stadium.

"**Dude… I rock!**"

"Robotboy, use every last weapon you've got!" Robotboy held out his hands, guns materialising all over his body, rockets, rifles, lasers, you name it, it was there. Metabee held a small energy ball between his hands, lightning sparking off of it wildly.

"**It's time… to kiss your bot goodbye! MEDAFORCE!**" Metabee fired just as Robotboy let loose his whole arsenal, the attacks crashing into each other from both sides. Light filled the stadium, the sound of tearing metal and explosions filling the air. Metabee winced as Robotboy's attacks nailed into his Medaforce attack, several shots getting past it and directly into him.

"Ro, full power! Don't let him win!"

"Metabee, remember, it's the soul of the Medabot and Medafighter combined! You're not alone out there, you've got my strength to!"

"You're right Ikki… As long as I know you've got my back, there's no way I can lose! I feel like a raging inferno!" Tommy's eyes peeled open in shock at the readings.

"More power? No way, you can't possibly…"

"**King Overdrive, Times Three!**" Robotboy's eyes widened as the laser suddenly doubled in mass, shooting through every one of his attacks, tearing through him, his medaparts tearing apart from the attack. The laser died down, the stadium torn to pieces from the attack. The dust from the explosion cleared, revealing Robotboy still standing, his arms held up in front of him, blocking the attack.

**Robotboy all Medaparts at 80% damage.**

"W-what a battle!" Henry roared. "Yet even with all of that, the winner is clear before everybody, with Robotboy knocked out of the ring, the winners are… Ikki and Metabee!" Robotboy stared at Henry in surprise before looking down at the ground. Sure enough, he was off the grey concrete tiles of the battle arena, and standing even further back than Tommy, almost by the benches, likely stopped by the invisible force field that protected the crowd.

"Whoa, it looks like… you guys won!" Tommy said. "An attack that gets stronger with the more damage you take, the Kabuto exclusive Damage Ball, one of the only Medaforce attacks that can harm Robotboy, and merged with the Type four Medaforce said to be able to harm even Kilobots, and thus Robotboy as well. Clever attack." Metabee collapsed onto his back, steam coming off of his medaparts. Ikki pumped his fist into the air, a huge smile spreading across his face.

"We won! Metabee, we won!" Triumphant cheers spread throughout the stadium. Even with the loss of the home ground, the cheers of the Team Japan supporters, and supporters of all those knocked out by the BBA were almost loud enough to drown out the angry cries of BBA supporters. Almost. Ikki ran to the centre of the arena, wrapping his arms around Metabee, only to immediately draw them back with a yelp. "Metabee, you're burning up! You almost burned me!"

"Who told you to touch me? I'm untouchable, I'm literally on fire!" Ikki laughed out loud. He'd be okay. Something like that wasn't going to stop him. Robotboy deactivated, shrinking back to his smaller form, holding his own left arm in place as it dangled loosely off of his shoulder.

"I'll fix you up once we get back home Ro, you were awesome…" Tommy said, picking him up with a hug.

"Robotboy, tired," Ro said, his drums drooping low as if signalling low power. Tommy let him go and looked back at Ikki and Metabee. "Well, you proved me wrong. Mass produced models aren't so bad after all. And you were right, I stood no chance of winning against you. I think I understand what you guys find so fun about Robattling to."

"I'm glad to hear it. You're a pretty awesome Medafighter though, especially for somebody who doesn't battle much. You've got to be the most naturally talented Medafighter I've ever seen, and I don't think I've ever seen a tougher Medabot anywhere!"

"Thanks, maybe we can have a rematch the next time we meet, this time without the worry of a ring out." The blood rushed out of Ikki's face at the mere thought of the idea.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I think my heart's in bad enough shape as it is after that!"

"Well, it was worth a try. You've beaten America's finest, now all that's left is heading to Africa for the semi-finals, then back to Japan for the final battle. You nervous?"

"A little, but nerves are good, they keep you on your toes." Tommy nodded his head in agreement.

"Then good luck Ikki Tenryou, there are bigger monsters out there than even me."

"Don't worry, I will!" With that, Ikki turned away, Metabee getting up with him. His team flooded the arena towards him, surrounding him in a tidal wave of congratulations.

"Way to go little bro."

"That's the way you robattle, though you weren't quite graceful."

"Keep it up and you'll be stronger than me, and I'm the leader of the Screws!"

"That more than makes up for my loss!"

"You did it Metabee, you showed them what we Rare Medals have got!"

"Lovely work Metabee, that was a _real _fight!"

"Whoa guys, slow down!" Ikki yelled. "We can deal with congrats later, for now we've gotta prepare for the next leg of the journey don't we? We've got one more stop then we're back home again!"

"Well I say there's one more thing we're missing," Samantha said. "Who's up for a celebration party?" Everybody yelled back 'aye!' and with that the matter was settled. The fight in the West over, it was now time to head to South Africa, and only one enemy burned in Ikki's mind. One foe he had to defeat at all costs…


End file.
